The Holy Bible

The Bible (from Koine Greek τὰ βιβλία, tà biblía, "the books") is a canonical collection of texts considered sacred in Judaism and Christianity. There is no single "Bible" and many Bibles with varying contents exist.[1] The term Bible is shared between Judaism and Christianity, although the contents of each of their collections of canonical texts is not the same. Different religious groups include different books within their Biblical canons, in different orders, and sometimes divide or combine books, or incorporate additional material into canonical books.

The Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, contains twenty-four books divided into three parts: the five books of the Torah ("teaching" or "law"), the Nevi'im ("prophets"), and the Ketuvim ("writings").

Christian Bibles range from the sixty-six books of the Protestant canon to the eighty-one books of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church canon. The first part of Christian Bibles is the Old Testament, which contains, at minimum, the twenty-four books of the Hebrew Bible divided into thirty-nine books and ordered differently from the Hebrew Bible. The Catholic Church and Eastern Christian churches also hold certain deuterocanonical books and passages to be part of the Old Testament canon. The second part is the New Testament, containing twenty-seven books: the four Canonical gospels, Acts of the Apostles, twenty-one Epistles or letters, and the Book of Revelation.

By the 2nd century BCE Jewish groups had called the Bible books "holy," and Christians now commonly call the Old and New Testaments of the Christian Bible "The Holy Bible" (τὰ βιβλία τὰ ἅγια, tà biblía tà ágia) or "the Holy Scriptures" (η Αγία Γραφή, e Agía Graphḗ). Many Christians consider the whole canonical text of the Bible to be divinely inspired. The oldest surviving complete Christian Bibles are Greek manuscripts from the 4th century. The oldest Tanakh manuscript in Hebrew and Aramaic dates to the 10th century CE,[2] but an early 4th-century Septuagint translation is found in the Codex Vaticanus. The Bible was divided into chapters in the 13th century by Stephen Langton and into verses in the 16th century by French printer Robert Estienne[3] and is now usually cited by book, chapter, and verse.

The Bible is widely considered to be the best selling book of all time,[4] has estimated annual sales of 100 million copies,[5][6] and has been a major influence on literature and history, especially in the West where it was the first mass-printed book. The Gutenberg Bible was the first Bible ever printed using movable type.The English word Bible is from the Latin biblia, from the same word in Medieval Latin and Late Latin and ultimately from Koine Greek τὰ βιβλία ta biblia "the books" (singular βιβλίον biblion).[7]

Medieval Latin biblia is short for biblia sacra "holy book", while biblia in Greek and Late Latin is neuter plural (gen. bibliorum). It gradually came to be regarded as a feminine singular noun (biblia, gen. bibliae) in medieval Latin, and so the word was loaned as a singular into the vernaculars of Western Europe.[8] Latin biblia sacra "holy books" translates Greek τὰ βιβλία τὰ ἅγια ta biblia ta hagia, "the holy books".[9]

The word βιβλίον itself had the literal meaning of "paper" or "scroll" and came to be used as the ordinary word for "book". It is the diminutive of βύβλος bublos, "Egyptian papyrus", possibly so called from the name of the Phoenician sea port Byblos (also known as Gebal) from whence Egyptian papyrus was exported to Greece. The Greek ta biblia (lit. "little papyrus books")[10] was "an expression Hellenistic Jews used to describe their sacred books (the Septuagint).[11][12] Christian use of the term can be traced to c. 223 CE.[7] The biblical scholar F.F. Bruce notes that Chrysostom appears to be the first writer (in his Homilies on Matthew, delivered between 386 and 388) to use the Greek phrase ta biblia ("the books") to describe both the Old and New Testaments together.Professor John K. Riches (writing for Oxford University Press) explained that "the biblical texts themselves are the result of a creative dialogue between ancient traditions and different communities through the ages",[14] and "the biblical texts were produced over a period in which the living conditions of the writers – political, cultural, economic, and ecological – varied enormously".[15]

Timothy H. Lim, a professor of Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Judaism at the University of Edinburgh, states that the Old Testament "was not written by one man, nor did it drop down from heaven as assumed by fundamentalists. It is not a magical book, but a collection of authoritative texts of apparently divine origin that went through a human process of writing and editing."[16] During the solidification of the Hebrew canon (c. 3rd century BCE), the Bible began to be translated into Greek, now referred to as the Septuagint.[17]

In Christian Bibles, the New Testament Gospels were derived from oral traditions (similar to the Hebrew Bible) in a period after Jesus's death,

Scholars have attempted to reconstruct something of the history of the oral traditions behind the Gospels, but the results have not been too encouraging. The period of transmission is short: less than 40 years passed between the death of Jesus and the writing of Mark's Gospel. This means that there was little time for oral traditions to assume fixed form.[18]

The Bible was later translated into Latin and other languages. John Riches states that,

The translation of the Bible into Latin marks the beginning of a parting of the ways between Western Latin-speaking Christianity and Eastern Christianity, which spoke Greek, Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopic, and other languages. The Bibles of the Eastern Churches vary considerably: the Ethiopic Orthodox canon includes 81 books and contains many apocalyptic texts, such as were found at Qumran and subsequently excluded from the Jewish canon. As a general rule, one can say that the Orthodox Churches generally follow the Septuagint in including more books in their Old Testaments than are in the Jewish canonThe Masoretic Text is the authoritative Hebrew text of the Hebrew Bible. While the Masoretic Text defines the books of the Jewish canon, it also defines the precise letter-text of these biblical books, with their vocalization and accentuation.

The oldest extant manuscripts of the Masoretic Text date from approximately the 9th century CE,[19] and the Aleppo Codex (once the oldest complete copy of the Masoretic Text, but now missing its Torah section) dates from the 10th century.

Tanakh (Hebrew: תנ"ך) reflects the threefold division of the Hebrew Scriptures, Torah ("Teaching"), Nevi'im ("Prophets") and Ketuvim ("Writings").The Torah (תּוֹרָה) is also known as the "Five Books of Moses" or the Pentateuch, meaning "five scroll-cases".[20] The Hebrew names of the books are derived from the first words in the respective texts.

The Torah comprises the following five books:

Genesis, Bereshith (בראשית)
Exodus, Shemot (שמות)
Leviticus, Vayikra (ויקרא)
Numbers, Bamidbar (במדבר)
Deuteronomy, Devarim (דברים)

The first eleven chapters of Genesis provide accounts of the creation (or ordering) of the world and the history of God's early relationship with humanity. The remaining thirty-nine chapters of Genesis provide an account of God's covenant with the Biblical patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (also called Israel) and Jacob's children, the "Children of Israel", especially Joseph. It tells of how God commanded Abraham to leave his family and home in the city of Ur, eventually to settle in the land of Canaan, and how the Children of Israel later moved to Egypt. The remaining four books of the Torah tell the story of Moses, who lived hundreds of years after the patriarchs. He leads the Children of Israel from slavery in Ancient Egypt to the renewal of their covenant with God at Mount Sinai and their wanderings in the desert until a new generation was ready to enter the land of Canaan. The Torah ends with the death of Moses.[21]

The Torah contains the commandments of God, revealed at Mount Sinai (although there is some debate among traditional scholars as to whether these were all written down at one time, or over a period of time during the 40 years of the wanderings in the desert, while several modern Jewish movements reject the idea of a literal revelation, and critical scholars believe that many of these laws developed later in Jewish history).[22][23][24][25] These commandments provide the basis for Jewish religious law. Tradition states that there are 613 commandments (taryag mitzvot).
Nevi'imNevi'im (Hebrew: נְבִיאִים Nəḇî'îm, "Prophets") is the second main division of the Tanakh, between the Torah and Ketuvim. It contains two sub-groups, the Former Prophets (Nevi'im Rishonim נביאים ראשונים, the narrative books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings) and the Latter Prophets (Nevi'im Aharonim נביאים אחרונים, the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel and the Twelve Minor Prophets).

The Nevi'im tell the story of the rise of the Hebrew monarchy and its division into two kingdoms, ancient Israel and Judah, focusing on conflicts between the Israelites and other nations, and conflicts among Israelites, specifically, struggles between believers in "the LORD God"[26] and believers in foreign gods,[27][28] and the criticism of unethical and unjust behavior of Israelite elites and rulers;[29][30][31] in which prophets played a crucial and leading role. It ends with the conquest of the Kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians followed by the conquest of the Kingdom of Judah by the Babylonians and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem.Good Friday is a religious holiday observed primarily by Christians commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary. The holiday is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum on the Friday preceding Easter Sunday, and may coincide with the Jewish observance of Passover. It is also known as Holy Friday, Great Friday, Black Friday,[1] or Easter Friday,[2][3][4] though the latter properly refers to the Friday in Easter week.

Based on the details of the Canonical gospels, the Crucifixion of Jesus was most likely to have been on a Friday (the day before the Sabbath) (John 19:42).[5] The estimated year of the Crucifixion is AD 33, by two different groups, and originally as AD 34 by Isaac Newton via the differences between the Biblical and Julian calendars and the crescent of the moon.[6] A third method, using a completely different astronomical approach based on a lunar Crucifixion darkness and eclipse model (consistent with Apostle Peter's reference to a "moon of blood" in Acts 2:20), points to Friday, 3 April AD 33.[7]

Good Friday is a widely-instituted legal holiday in many national governments around the world, including in most Western countries as well as in 12 U.S. states. Some governments have laws prohibiting certain acts that are seen as contrasting the solemn nature of the day

‘Half a Rupee’: Seeing life through Gulzar’s poetic gaze

‘Half a Rupee’: Seeing life through Gulzar’s poetic gaze
The reputation of a 'short story' in literature is quite questionable. Often defined as 'the poor cousin' of the more 'opulent' novel, a short story is like a struggling artist striving for a moment of glory.

As an introduction note to his book of short stories- 'Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman', the much celebrated Japanese author Haruki Murakami wrote, "If writing novels is like planting a forest, then writing short stories is more like planting a garden. The two processes complement each other, creating a complete landscape that I treasure." In India, it was during a session titled 'Kahani Kisko Kehte Hain? Script, Story, Screenplay' at the Jaipur Literature Festival in 2012 that poet and lyricist Gulzar had presented a valid argument against marginalisation of short stories in literature and explained how a river cannot boast of its affluence unless there is a confluence of tributaries that flow into it. Thanks to them and many such writers that short stories are (re)gaining prominence among the present generation of readers. And Gulzar's latest collection of short stories, 'Half a Rupee Stories' offers us yet another treasure trove of tales waiting to be opened and devoured.

Usual stories, unusual writing
When it's Gulzar, even the ordinary assumes a larger-than-life yet real status of its own and something which is a 'unique' incident or an experience is narrated with a kind of unusual simplicity that it appears like an everyday occurrence. This is best explained if we pick two stories out of the twenty five in the book. The story 'Hilsa' for instance begins with a happy scene where we get a glimpse of a Bengali couple engaged in a discussion on the beautiful eyes of the Hilsa fish. As the wife dresses it for the afternoon meal, her husband shares a trivia on why one "shouldn't eat fish in the months that do not have the letter R in them," the reason being those are the months in which the fish breed. Everything seems fine until the innocent reader reaches the climax and is caught off-guard. The 'mesmerising' eyes of the pregnant Hilsa that we'd started marvelling at, in fact, serves a metaphor to describe the eyes of a dead pregnant woman, gang-raped in the city riots. Her photograph on the front page of the newspaper that the husband reads (in the concluding scene) rudely reminds us of the fish in the pan as the story concludes, "Her eyes looked like those of the Hilsa in the pan". The next story is about a suicide bomber who strangely wishes to get photographed on her last day of existence. With the mission (to blow up the Prime Minister) in mind, she wakes up to her last morning and plans the day. What is most interesting about the story is its title- 'Swayamvar' (a practice in ancient India of selecting a husband from a list of suitors). How on earth is marriage even relevant to a woman who is to die in hours, we wonder? Once you finish reading the story, all questions are put to rest.

Javed Akhtar, Kashmir and the 'aam-aadmi'
Half a Rupee Stories allows us to take a sneak peek into some personal chapters of people that have left an impact on Gulzar to an extent that he decides to chronicle them for posterity. Most of us are aware of lyricist and scriptwriter Javed Akhtar's wit, quick repartee and playfulness but only a privileged few have lifted his writer's cloak to discover the person hidden behind. Gulzar does that for us. Javed Akhtar's aka 'Jaadu' (as the poet addresses him in the story) sweet-n-sour relationship with his father, early days as a writer in the Hindi film industry and little dreams about receiving the Filmfare and his acceptance speech rehearsals in closed rooms of production houses make for a fascinating read. The story, however, is an emotional one. Javed Akhtar's special friendship with Urdu poet and Hindi lyricist Sahir Ludhianvi and its tragic end has been written with utmost sensitivity and honesty. Kashmir and Indo-Pak relations too feature as repeated themes in Gulzar's stories which are again fiction but experienced reality at the same time. It is hard for the reader to blame Gulzar for patronizing the poor in his stories because the empathy with which he writes about their hardship and challenges forces us to question our own behaviour toward them. 'Half a Rupee', also a story in its own in the volume is Gulzar's personal favourite. "This story is very close to my heart. The struggle to transform an 'athanniya' (half a rupee) to a full rupee is the central theme and 'Half a Rupee' becomes a metaphor of the poor's plight," explains the poet.

Gulzar's simplicity, translator's honesty
Reading the book you'll find that the translator has retained some of the Hindi words as is. Terms like angeethi, mehetar, ghuggni, gulkand, gamchas, mannat and athanni among others do not always come with a mandatory asterisk or footnotes that you can refer to understand the English equivalent. It could be that the translator did not want to take away the flavour of the original; after all a 'ghuggni' is not the same as a chickpea dish nor is 'gamcha' exactly a towel. The images they conjure would not occur if they were to be rephrased or re-interpreted and this is where Sunjoy Shekhar ensures not to disturb the fabric of the stories.

From the Foreword by Gulzar to the twenty fifth story, 'Half a Rupee' comes across as an exploration of human life in varied situations and settings. Whether it's on streets, in the hills, across the border, in the rain or a film studio; Gulzar does not miss a chance to say that it is life which is his ultimate muse.

SOHAN QADRI: An Artist and Poet of Global Dimensions

SOHAN QADRI: An Artist and Poet of Global Dimensions

Sohan Qadri is an internationally acclaimed Artist/Chiterkaar who has made unparalleled achievements on Global Basis. The theme, colour and form meld into each other to create a unique aesthetic effect in his Abstract Paintings. His paintings provoke thinking and imagination thereby inviting a dialogue with the language of silence, deeply embedded in his outstanding creations.

Sohan Qadri, often, used to say that: "I DO NOT PAINT. THE PAINTING IS ALREADY ON MY CANVAS. I JUST DUST IT WITH MY COLOURS." He is an ABSTRACT ARTIST and a CREATIVE GENIUS. His paintings have a touch of mysticism and modern intellectualism.

Sohan Qadri has also written equally unique poetry in Punjabi and English. His poetry compliments his painting experiences. They are, actually, intertwined with each other and cannot be separated.

Paintings of Sohan Qadri can be found in private collections in India, Africa, U.S.A., Canada and Europe. Some of his paintings are also available in the following Art Galleries and Museums:

1. National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, India
2. Lalit Kala Akademiet, New Delhi, India
3. State Museum, Chandigarh, India
4. Slups Museum of Modern Art, Poland
5. Arthus Kunstakakademi, Denmark

Sohan Qadri has published the following books:

1. The Dot and the Dots: Poems in English and Paintings,
published in Sweden, in 1978
2. MITTI MITTI: Punjabi Poems/Sutras - Published by Navyug Publishers, Delhi,
India, in 1987
3. The dot and the dots(English Sutras) - Writers Workshop, Calcutta, India - 1988
4. Boond Samunder: Punjabi Sutras/Poems: Published in Amritsar, India, in 1990
5. Aforismer - Danish translation - Copenhagen, Denmark - 1995
6. Anter Joti: Punjabi Sutra/Poems - Published by the Navyug Publishers, Delhi,
India, in 1995
7. Anter-Jhati: Punjabi Sutra/Poems - Published by Navyug Publishers, Delhi,
India, in 2003

Dr. Mulk Raj Anand wrote the following words about Sohan Qadri's Paintings:
"SPACE FOR SOHAN QADRI IS ENDLESS. THE VIBRATIONS ARE CONTINUOUS. THESE EXPERIMENTS BREAK NEW GROUND AND DIMENSION IN THE SUBTLE AREAS OF SENSIBILITY, WHERE INSIGHTS GROW INTO LIGHT."

F.N. Souza(Painter and Writer - New York, USA) wrote the following words about Qadri's Paintings:
" There is an unmistakable pervasive element of excellence in all of them.....Sohan Qadri emerges as a rare and original painter."

Jenny Bergin(Art Critic) wrote the following words in the "Ottawa Citizen", on July 7, 1972: "Qadri has said much more than I can absorb in a single visit.....Yet on a deeper level the forms are continuously seeking and surrendering to the Formlessness."

Sohan Qadri comes from a small village CHACHOKI, near Phagwara, India. He got a Diploma in Art from the Simla School of Art. He organized a "LOOSE GROUP" of Artists and Writers, in Jalandhar Coffee House, in the 1960s, that included Artist Hardev Singh, Sculptor Shiv Singh and Poets: S.S. Misha, Ravinder Ravi, Ajiab Kamal, Nadeem Parmar and others.

Sohan Qadri taught Art and Craft in Ram Garhia Training College, Phagwara, India, in the 1960s, before immigrating to Kenya, in 1966, and from there to Switzerland and Denmark.

In 1965, Qadri designed the TITLE of my 3rd. Collection of Poetry: "BINDOO" and thereafter came more than a dozen Cover Designs, of my books, from him. He created PAINTING EFFECTS, in his cover designs.

He has won many Honours and Awards, on National and International levesl. The International Association of Punjabi Authors and Artists, Canada(IAPAA) also honoured him, in 1982.

Qadri lived most of his life in Denmark and he passed away in Canada, just a couple of years ago. He was a very close friend and I miss him like my other contemporary writers/artists. Some pictures, tiles of his books and PAINTINGS are attached herewith for the Face Bookers.

 

SATI KUMAR: A Poet of Simplicity in Complexity

SATI KUMAR: A Poet of Simplicity in Complexity

Sati Kumar is a prominent poet of the 1960s, who made his presence felt in the Paryogsheel Lehar. He explored themes of human sexuality and expressed them in an unhibited, off-beat and bold manner. The Existentialist complexities were revealed, with ease, through Impressionistic flashes, in his poetry. His poems were short, normally, but not without subtle touches of his creative artistry. He developed a unique style of expressing the most difficult, intellectual and complex matters, through simple language and yet maintain high standards. In the Post-Paryogsheel Lehar Era, Sati Kumar and Harinam preferred to be labelled under the poets of the NEW POETRY(Naveen Kavita) or NAVEEN KAVITA DE KAVI..

I published his following poems, in PARYOGSHEEL KAAV-DARPAN(1964 - Edited by Ravinder Ravi):
1. NINDEYAKAARI 2. TOON PAR-ANG NAHEEN SUTTI
A second edition of this book was published in 2007, by the National Book Shop, Delhi, India.

He was not a prolific poet but whatever he wrote, created a stir in the literary circles. He started his poetic career, in the 60s, with the publication of his first Collection of poetry: PANCHAM. It was followed by his second Collection:GHORIAAN DI UDEEK. Both books created heated reactions in the literary circles, thereby bringing Sati Kumar to the limelight. RAHAAO(1977) and TAANBEY DA RUKH(1979) established him as a Punjabi poet of unique accomplishments.

He translated and published the selected BULGARIAN POETRY, in Punjabi, under the title: AJOKI BULGARIAN KAVITA. He also translated the Bulgarian play, written by Jagarov, and published it in Punjabi, under the title of SARKARI WAKEEL.
He translated and published several books in Hindi. He translated RAMAYNA and MAHA BHARATA and published them in Europe.

He translated his selected poems,and published them in English, under the title: RUNAWAY COW(1969).

Sati Kumar went, on a Scholarship, for higher studies, to Bulgaria. He married IVANKA there and then moved to Stockholm(Sweden), where they had their daughter: ADITI.

When I was on my way to Canada, from Kenya, as an immigrant, in October, 1974, I broke my journey, in London, England. On the invitation of Sati Kumar, I and Tarsem Singh Purewal(Editor: DES PARDES) flew to Stockholm, in November, 1974, to enjoy the welcoming and warm hospitality of Sati Kumar and his wife Ivanka. We met with the Swedish writers and also took a CRUISE to FINLAND. I have written about this memorable visit, in my travelogue/Safernama: SIMRATIYAAN DE DESH
(Second Edition-2006 - National Book Shop, Delhi, India).

Sati Kumar won the Bhasha Vibhag Shiromani Sahitkar(Badeshi) Award, apart from several other awards.

He was suffering from Cancer and that took his life. I miss him just like my other contemporaries but the memories of my friends are everlasting.
See his attached pictures and titles of some of his books.

Kamandal by Jaswant Deed

The spirit is restless, anxious and melancholic and the flesh is weak, weary that sums up the modern man. "I have no interest anywhere/ `85 no direction is befitting `85 I silently ruminate for nothing/ but always without rest." For its excellent treatment of modern man’s predicament, Jaswant Deed’s five-verse anthology has deservedly won the Sahitya Akademi Award for 2007. With its wide-ranging scope, this collection of cerebral, experimental, complex and variegated poems makes a substantial contribution to contemporary Punjabi poetry.

Focusing on the tension between spiritual and material modes of life, the past and the present, the country life and the city life, the East and the West, making and failing of relationships, the autobiographical poems dyed in imagination plunge the readers into deep thoughts. It is interesting to see how the poet presents the themes of universal significance as profoundly personal. The witty, ironic, poignant lyrics are a picture of many conflicts, tussles that inhabit modern man’s soul.

Identical to the poet himself, the fractured and fraught poetic persona, feeling restless, with a kamandal (a mendicant’s vessel) in hands, sets out in search of "tek" (rest), but time and again is chased and tormented by worldly desires.

"Haath kamandal kapdiya, man trishna upaji bhai", Baba Nanak’s words sparkle in the title, Kamandal and a few religious poems—Bhakti, Gajadhari, Kutiya and Tere Dar Pe. It’s in this sense the book has a religious tinge. A yearning for deliverance haunts the poet.

The poet draws his subjects primarily from his own life and surroundings. A nostalgia for his rural roots and the consequent melancholy colour the poems Tabar, Pudina, Pind Duji Waar, Pindo Suneha. His complete honesty in terms of dialect is striking.

Jaswant Deed’s poetry is a far cry from the mainstream Punjabi poetry. It subverts the glorified ideal of faithfulness in the man-woman relationship.

In Vichhoda, separation instead of tormenting is relieving for the partners, and how true in the modern context!

Jaswant Deed, professionally related to television, uses visual details deftly and abundantly in his poems. The poet ironically celebrates the elemental greed, craftiness, cunningness and slyness of cats and snakes (the recurrent images) to describe the nitty-gritty of modern life.

The rugged style and ironic portrayal of the vicissitudes of modern life make Kamandal a must for those interested in modern poetry.Reviewed by Kanchan Mehta

Sex, Scotch And Scholarship by Khushwant Singh

Sex, Scotch And Scholarship by Khushwant Singh
This book is compilation of short stories and life events of Khushwant Singh, some are very interesting and some of them bit dull. Please don't go on the title its not only sex that Mr. K is talking about but the how it's interpreted in Indian way of life. Books starts with Mr. K's history and he is tries his best to remove allegations like womanizer or drunked from him and further it touches the life events and learning of his life. Later in the end some good historical references from gurbani gives the final

ending to this book.

Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Hamlet is a revenge story that is perhaps like any other- a son's quest for avenging his father's murder. But it has been said that nothing is new under the sun. All stories are old and familiar, and it is the telling that raises it to the level of a masterpiece. Love, lust and hatred, those indispensable elements of every story, are discovered anew in this timeless classic. The drama pulls the reader into an intimate engagement and Hamlet's tragedy becomes the tragedy of every individual. No nation is a stranger to political intrigues and love affairs. Scandals in the court are scintillating without being surprising. With the words "something is rotten in the state of Denmark", Shakespeare underlines the universality of 'rotten'-ness. The king of Denmark is killed by his brother, who lusts after the crown and the queen. Hamlet, the prince, comes to know about this and vows revenge.Social/Historical context:

Hamlet was probably written between 1599 and 1601. The story is based on popular legend, but in spite of being completely embedded in the 16th century, it is a tale that has a universal reach- across boundaries of time and space. Shakespeare tries to communicate a message- and thoughts of staging a performance with ease take a backseat, which is why this play is regarded as the ultimate challenge for any actor. Hamlet has even entered the English language and is a part of public memory- people quote from the play unknowingly. Shakespeare takes the old tale of a hero who sacrifices himself in the cause of justice and turns it on its head. Hamlet is hardly the popular hero- he is confused and indecisive, he is unable to act and he procrastinates. He achieves something only when some external calamity forces him to react. He is preoccupied with thoughts of death and suicide. His intellect and erudition are very unusual for a royal personage. He is no weakling- but his fencing skills are hardly of any use while his anger is misdirected. Hamlet is not a revenge story at heart, it is a quest for identity and self-knowledge.Writing Style:

It is unnecessary to say that the verse is superb- the fact that it stays with the reader for a long time is ample testimony. Shakespeare uses rhetoric to convey many kinds of meaning with just one line, which makes every line very intense and open to a variety of interpretations. Ample use of puns and metaphors put forward ideas about identity, female sexuality, etc. It is interesting to note how Shakespeare treats love. The oedipal overtones of Hamlet's love for his mother have been discussed for centuries. Queen Gertrude's ill-timed love affair has been dissected in the light of midlife crisis, menopause, etc. But there are other kinds of love that have received comparatively lesser attention. The extremely low-key treatment of the relationship between Hamlet and Ophelia is startling when one considers the tragedy of Ophelia, which is as magnificent as the love story of Desdemona or Juliet. Filial love forms the basis of the play, and ideas about parental supervision and imposition run as an undercurrent.Hamlet changed the way I look at life. I cannot explain why I fell in love with the most flawed character in English literature. Perhaps because it is not easy to recognize flaws for what they are and accept them.

Book Reviewed by Amrita Dutta

The Circle by Dave Eggers

Mae Holland, a woman in her 20s, arrives for her first day of work at a company called the Circle. She marvels at the beautiful campus, the fountain, the tennis and volleyball courts, the squeals of children from the day care center “weaving like water.” The first line in the book is: “ ‘My God,’ Mae thought. ‘It’s heaven.’ ” And so we know that the Circle in Dave Eggers’s new novel, “The Circle,” will be a hell.

The time is somewhere in the not-too-distant future — the Three Wise Men who own and rule the Circle are recognizable as individuals living today. The company demands transparency in all things; two of its many slogans are SECRETS ARE LIES and PRIVACY IS THEFT. Anonymity is banished; everyone’s past is revealed; every­one’s present may be broadcast live in video and sound. Nothing recorded will ever be erased. The Circle’s goal is to have all aspects of human existence — from voting to love affairs — flow through its portal, the sole such portal in the world. This potential dystopia should sound familiar. Books and tweets and blogs are already debating the issues Eggers raises: the tyranny of transparency, personhood defined as perpetual presence in social networks, our strange drive to display ourselves, the voracious information appetites of Google and Facebook, our lives under the constant surveillance of our own government. “The Circle” adds little of substance to the debate. Eggers reframes the discussion as a fable, a tale meant to be instructive. His instructors include a Gang of 40, a Transparent Man, a shadowy figure who may be a hero or a villain, a Wise Man with a secret chamber and a smiling legion of true-believing company employees. The novel has the flavor of a comic book: light, entertaining, undemanding.

Readers who enter the Circle’s potential Inferno do not have the benefit of Virgil, Dante’s guide through hell and purgatory, but they do have Mae, a naïve girl with the sensibility of a compulsive iPhone FaceTime chatterer. (Oddly, Mae does not lead us through the ranks of programmers — let alone offer a glimpse of a woman programmer — a strange omission in a book purporting to be about technology.)

Mae has been introduced to the Circle by her friend and former roommate Annie, who is close to the Three Wise Men. She begins work in lowly Customer Experience, providing boilerplate answers to client questions and complaints. Her performance is tabulated after every interaction, her ratings displayed for all to see.

Mae is an eager competitor, earning a record score on her first day. Soon she is a champion Circler, moving ever closer to the company’s inner rings. Eventually she becomes as transparent as a person can be within the realm of the Circle: wired for the broadcasting of her every waking move. In the bathroom, for instance, she can turn off the audio, but the camera stays on, focused on the back of the stall door. (If she is silent for too long, her followers send urgent messages asking if she is O.K.)

At each advance into “participation” (or descent into hell, as the case may be), Mae is a tail-wagging puppy waiting for the next reward: a better rating, millions of viewers. Far from resisting, she finds each new electronic demand “delicious” and “exhilarating.” Now and then, she briefly feels a black “tear” opening inside her, but the feeling comes at improbable moments and in such overheated prose as to parody emotion: “a scream muffled by fathomless waters, that high-pitched scream of a million drowned voices.”

Can anything prevent Mae’s fall into the depths of the Circle? Enter the mysterious Kalden. While everyone else lives in the clear light of transparency, Kalden emerges from the shadows. Everyone working at the Circle can be located, but Kalden’s name appears nowhere; Mae experiences his invisibility as “aggressive.” Everyone inside the Circle is young and healthy; the outside is for the old and ill. And here is Kalden, who has gray hair yet looks young. The symbolism — is he a vibrant Circler or an old man from the dark outside? — is all too obvious. At their second meeting, Mae follows Kalden down long corridors, through underground tunnels, down and down and down. What she sees in this netherworld is a metallic red box the size of a bus, wrapped in tentacles of “gleaming silver pipes.” Kalden tells her it stores the experiences of the Transparent Man, who for five years has recorded everything he has seen and heard. Kalden makes some excuse for the box’s huge size, but his technical explanation is ridiculous. There just happens to be a mattress in an alcove, where Mae and Kalden have sex — she thrills as he breathes “fire into her ear.” Later Kalden will say the Circle is in fact a “totalitarian nightmare,” as if a reader did not know this from the start.

THE CIRCLE

By Dave Eggers

491 pp. Alfred A. Knopf/McSweeney’s Books. $27.95.

Like Kalden, alas, Eggers tends to overexplain. An example of what might have been a fine scene: Mae is with her ex-­boyfriend, Mercer, who makes chandeliers out of deer antlers. (Eggers has not been kind to Mercer in giving him this occupation.) Mae takes out her digital device and, without Mercer’s asking, starts reciting negative online reviews of his work. He begs her to stop. But Mae reads another: “All those poor deer antlers died for this?” The scene, having established Mae’s casual cruelty, should have ended there. Instead it continues for five more pages, during which Mae and Mercer debate the effects of social media. The words “author’s message” flash above the scene, as they do above too many others.

Do we even care about Mae? What remains of her life outside the Circle — Mercer, her family, her father’s multiple sclerosis — she relentlessly (and blithely) draws inside the power ring of the company, to disastrous and tragic effect. And finally Annie, the onetime friend who drew her into the Circle: Mae wants to triumph over her and push her out, again to disastrous effect. A sense of horror finally arrives near the end of the book, coming not through Mae’s eyes but through the power of Eggers’s writing, which we have been waiting for all along. The final scene is chilling.

Mae, then, is not a victim but a dull villain. Her motivations are teenage-Internet petty: getting the highest ratings, moving into the center of the Circle, being popular. She presents a plan that will enclose the world within the Circle’s reach, but she exhibits no complex desire for power, only a longing for the approval of the Wise Men. She is more a high school mean girl than an evil opponent. Perhaps this is what Eggers wants to say: that evil in the future will look more like the trivial Mae than it will the hovering dark eye of Big Brother. If so, he should have worked much harder to express this profound thought. The characters need substance; Mae must be more than a cartoon.

There is an early scene in which Mae could have become a rounded character, one we might worry about. It is her first day on the job. All information on her digital devices has been transferred to the Circle’s system. During the introductory formalities, she is asked if she would like to hand over her old laptop for responsible recycling. But Mae hesitates. “Maybe tomorrow,” she says. “I want to say goodbye.”

If there was ever a need for a pause in the narrative, it is after that “goodbye.” In the opening of a white space, we might imagine Mae’s feelings as she holds the device containing her private experi­ences. We might linger over what it means to surrender — voluntarily, even eagerly — the last shreds of one’s personal life.

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

The Old Man and the Sea is a novel written by the American author Ernest Hemingway in 1951 in Cuba, and published in 1952. It was the last major work of fiction to be produced by Hemingway and published in his lifetime. One of his most famous works, it centers upon Santiago, an aging fisherman who struggles with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream. The Old Man and the Sea was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1953 and was cited by the Nobel Committee as contributing to the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Literature to Hemingway in 1954.
The Old Man and the Sea is the story of a battle between an old, experienced fisherman and a large marlin. The novel opens with the explanation that the fisherman, who is named Santiago, has gone 84 days without catching a fish. Santiago is considered "salao", the worst form of unluckiness. In fact, he is so unlucky that his young apprentice, Manolin, has been forbidden by his parents to sail with the old man and been ordered to fish with more successful fishermen. Still dedicated to the old man, however, the boy visits Santiago's shack each night, hauling back his fishing gear, getting him food and discussing American baseball and his favorite player Joe DiMaggio. Santiago tells Manolin that on the next day, he will venture far out into the Gulf Stream, north of Cuba in the Straits of Florida to fish, confident that his unlucky streak is near its end. Thus on the eighty-fifth day, Santiago sets out alone, taking his skiff far onto the Gulf Stream. He sets his lines and, by noon of the first day, a big fish that he is sure is a marlin takes his bait. Unable to pull in the great marlin, Santiago instead finds the fish pulling his skiff. Two days and two nights pass in this manner, during which the old man bears the tension of the line with his body. Though he is wounded by the struggle and in pain, Santiago expresses a compassionate appreciation for his adversary, often referring to him as a brother. He also determines that because of the fish's great dignity, no one will be worthy of eating the marlin. On the third day of the ordeal, the fish begins to circle the skiff, indicating his tiredness to the old man. Santiago, now completely worn out and almost in delirium, uses all the strength he has left in him to pull the fish onto its side and stab the marlin with a harpoon, ending the long battle between the old man and the tenacious fish. Santiago straps the marlin to the side of his skiff and heads home, thinking about the high price the fish will bring him at the market and how many people he will feed. While Santiago continues his journey back to the shore, sharks are attracted to the trail of blood left by the marlin in the water. The first, a great mako shark, Santiago kills with his harpoon, losing that weapon in the process. He makes a new harpoon by strapping his knife to the end of an oar to help ward off the next line of sharks; in total, five sharks are slain and many others are driven away. But the sharks keep coming, and by nightfall the sharks have almost devoured the marlin's entire carcass, leaving a skeleton consisting mostly of its backbone, its tail and its head. Finally reaching the shore before dawn on the next day, Santiago struggles on the way to his shack, carrying the heavy mast on his shoulder. Once home, he slumps onto his bed and falls into a deep sleep. A group of fishermen gather the next day around the boat where the fish's skeleton is still attached. One of the fishermen measures it to be 18 feet (5.5 m) from nose to tail. Tourists at the nearby café mistakenly take it for a shark. Manolin, worried during the old man's endeavor, cries upon finding him safe asleep. The boy brings him newspapers and coffee. When the old man wakes, they promise to fish together once again. Upon his return to sleep, Santiago dreams of his youth—of lions on an African beach.

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet is perhaps the most famous love story in the world. So much so that ‘Romeo’ is almost synonymous with the word ‘lover’. The Montagues (Romeo) and the Capulets (Juliet) are two important families in Verona, who are engaged in a bitter feud. The story spans four days – beginning with Romeo and Juliet’s first meeting and ending with their death. It tells of an intense all-consuming love and how that love is powerful enough to hope to exist beyond mortal life. The plot is similar to the myth of Pyramus and Thisbe, who fell in love with each other in spite of the feud raging between their families. Shakespeare used the same myth in the play-within-play of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but there it is treated as a farce.
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Social/Historical context:

The play was written in the mid-1590s, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. At that time the sonnet-craze was at a peak. Both poets and amateurs had been swept off their feet by the sheer power of Petrarch’s love sonnets, and tried to follow in his footsteps. Shakespeare masterfully parodies this craze, not only in this play, but in many of his works. At the beginning of the play we see Romeo entranced by the bad love poetry that he reads – in love with the concept of love – Juliet cures him of his ridiculous devotion to Rosaline, the archetypal cold and aloof woman so beloved of Renaissance poets.
Writing Style:

Romeo and Juliet has some of the most intense and moving love poetry ever written by Shakespeare, sometimes even rivaling his wonderful love-sonnets. It is also famous for its satire, a tool that is mainly used through the character of Mercutio.
My Thoughts:Having first read this play in the adapted Lamb’s version, I confess that I was unaware of its beauty for a rather long time. Shakespeare was fully aware that he was working with a plot that was clichéd even in his own time – today it is even laughable. But the brilliance of a story lies in the story-telling. Romeo and Juliet experience true love the moment they see each other. Love makes them forget everything else. From the very beginning they are somehow aware that they are doomed to die – they have given up their lives to love. Not only love, but every emotion in the play is heightened and leads to terrible consequences. The hatred and antagonism between the two familes, the Montagues and the Capulets, often find expression in extreme violence. Likewise love is also inextricably linked with violence, mostly self-inflicted. Fate rules the lives of human beings, but as Mercutio would say, human beings also determine their destiny. Uncontrollable emotion and the consequences of the same is one of the major themes of the play. The play is also an interesting comment on suicide. The protagonists are Catholics (unlike Pyramus and Thisbe), and to Catholics suicide is a mortal sin. But the play glorifies the suicides of Romeo and Juliet as noble sacrifice, and raises them to the level of martyrs.

Book Reviewed by Amrita Dutta

Khamoshi di Awaz by Amar Jyoti

Khamoshi di Awaz by Amar Jyoti
Amar Jyoti: The Anguish of the Second Sex
With the publication of Khamoshi di Awaz (The sound of silence) in 1998, Amar Jyoti had arrived on the scene with eclat. Earlier her collections of poems, such as Maruthal vich turde pair (1985), Mainu Sita na kaho (1998).and Daropadi ton Durga Takk (1990), had made their mark in no uncertain terms. In 1990, she left Chandigarh, where she had been editing Pankharian, a Punjabi monthly for children, for Amsterdam (Netherlands) as a broadcaster over Radio Voice of Asia. In 1994 she switched over to Radio Indian Times to present programmes regarding Indian literature and culture. She pays occasional visits to the land of her birth so as to be in touch with the soil that nourished her poetic faculties in days of yore.
Her poems are the voice of the woman of today who is eager to put her signatures on the sands of time. She is ever in quest of the meanings of her life and the role she is destined to play in this world. Like Sassi, the legendary herione of a folk romance, she is walking bare-footed on the parched sand. In Punnu, of course, she can find the ultimate fulfilment of her desires. She has covered a long distance and it is well-nigh impossible for her to bear the pangs of separation any more-
It is difficult for me to drink
the poison of the blisters of my feet
that are always roving in the desert of my mind. Amar Jyoti is conscious of the fact that woman always gets lost in the labyrinths of relationships but she has no identity of her own. In her parental home, she is paraya dhan (Another person's property), whereas in the house of her in-laws she is begaani dhi (Someone else's daughther). As a result she regards herself as a rootless person, without any permanen address. In the poem Swaal binajawaab (A question without an answer), the poetess says-
He asked me my home address
I replied, What do I know ?
He asked if I were a gypsy.
'No' I replied again.
'In exile ?'
'No',
'Banished ?'
'No'.
'Who are you then ?'
'A woman, merely.'
This feeling of rootlessness is further enhanced in an alien land. The language one speaks, the dress one wears and the food one cooks appear incongruous in exotic surroundings. At such places the pain of being a woman becomes even more acute because she is viewed there as a curio. Strange inquisitive looks peruse her face and she recoils more into the shell of her misery. She has a bitter realisation that in her own country, she was considered at least the property of someone, whereas in a foreign country, she is regarded as the property of no one. In the poem, Be-watan (In exile), she expresses the sentiments of this sort--
You cannot open your lips
You cannot shout aloud
You cannot rollick in the street
You cannot enjoy a hearty laugh
The meanings of a guffaw
have been lost even to us
How can our children know about it ? In the course of her musings about the fate of womankind in the past ages, Amar Jyoti dwells deeply on the plight of Sassi whose footprints, she feels, have been imprinted on the surface of her mind. Then she is reminded of Daropadi who was insulted in an open court by the unthinking people. She was the victim of rapacity and lustfulness. A mere body, devoid of a soul or a mind. Would that Daropadi had assumed the form of the goddess Durga and avenged the wrong-doings meted out to her. In the poem Mannat (A Wish), the poetess says-
Mypen wants the earth
spared of more ravages
at the hands of its masters.
On its part
the earth should desist from playing
the role of Daropadi
and reincarnate itself
into Durga
Amar Jyoti is not a sentimental poet, nor is she the victim of the phobia of male chauvinism. She is down to earth in her approach to the life of love and the love of life. She is the one whose innocent dreams have been shattered on the anvil of bitter experiences. Her longings for leading a life of her liking are not the outcome of narcissism. Rather, she wants to share the joys of life with men on equal footing. Indeed her refined sensibilities can weave a palpable design when she is face to face with the image of true love-
You have entered my life
in such a manner
as has enwrapped me
in the cloak of
silken feelings.
She is deeply immersed in folklore, apart from having interest in Indian mythology. Such an awareness of legendary and mythical personages gives a classical touch to the poetical rendering of her intimate feelings. In a forthright manner, she demands of Bulhe Shah the gifts of sincere feelings and honest living-
O' Bulhe Shah!
You scoffed at the shams of your age.
Now teach us to live
With dignity and honour

“The Guide” by R.K. Narayan

The Guide is the most popular novel of R.K. Narayan. It was published in 1958, and won the Sahitya Akademy Award for 1960. It has also been filmed and the film has always drawn packed-houses.

It recounts the adventures of a railway guide, popularly known as ‘Railway Raju’. As a tourist guide he is widely popular. It is this profession which brings him in contact with Marco and his beautiful wife, Rosie. While the husband is busy with his archaeological studies, Raju seduces his wife and has a good time with her. Ultimately Marco comes to know of her affair with Raju and goes away to Madras leaving Rosie behind. Rosie comes and stays with Raju in his one-room house. His mother tolerates her for some time, but when things become unbearable, she calls her brother and goes away with him, leaving Raju to look after Rosie and the house.

Rosie is a born dancer, she practices regularly and soon Raju finds an opening for her. In her very first appearance, she is a grand success. Soon she is very much in demand and their earnings increase enormously. Raju lives lavishly, entertains a large number of friends with whom he drinks and gambles. All goes well till Raju forges Rosie’s signatures to obtain valuable jewellery lying with her husband. The act lands him in jail. Rosie leaves Malgudi and goes away to Madras, her hometown. She goes on with her dancing and does well without the help and management of Raju, of which he was so proud.

On release from jail, Raju takes shelter in a deserted temple on the banks of the river Sarayu, a few miles away from Malgudi, and close to the village called Mangla. The simple villagers take him to be a Mahatma, begin to worship him, and bring him a lot of eatables as presents. Raju is quite comfortable and performs the role of a saint to perfection.

However, soon there is a severe famine drought, and the villagers expect Raju to perform some miracle to bring them rain. So he has to undertake a fast. The fast attracts much attention and people come to have darshan of the Mahatma from far and wide. On the twelfth day of the fast, Raju falls down exhausted just as there are signs of rain on the distant horizon. It is not certain if he is actually dead or merely fainted. Thus the novel comers to an1 abrupt close on a note of ambiguity.

The last pages of Narayan’s best novel, The Guide, find Raju, the chief protagonist, at the end of a lifetime of insincerity and pain. As a professional guide to Malgudi’s environs, he invented whole new historical pasts for bored tourists; he seduced a married woman, drifted away from his old mother and friends, became a flashy cultural promoter, and then tried, absentmindedly, to steal and was caught and spent years in jail, abandoned by everyone.

His last few months have been spent in relative comfort as a holy man on the banks of a river: a role imposed on him by reverential village folk. But the river dries up after a drought and his devotees start looking to him to intercede with the gods. Raju resentfully starts a fast, but furtively eats whatever little food he has saved. Then abruptly, out of a moment of self disgust, comes his resolution: for the first time in his life, he will do something with complete sincerity, and he will do it for others: if fasting can bring rain, he’ll fast.

He stops eating, and quickly diminishes. News of his efforts goes around; devotees and sightseers, gathering at the riverside, create a religious occasion out of the fast. On the early morning of the eleventh day of fasting, a small crowd watches him quietly as he attempts to pray standing on the river bed and then staggers and dies, mumbling the enigmatic last words of the novel, “It’s raining in the hills. I can feel it coming up under my feet, up my legs….”

Characteristically, Narayan doesn’t make it clear whether Raju’s penance does actually lead to rain. He also doesn’t make much of Raju’s decision, the moment of his redemption, which a lesser writer would have attempted to turn into a resonant ending, but which is quickly passed over here in a few lines. What we know, in a moment of great disturbing beauty, is something larger and more affecting than the working-out of an individual destiny in an inhospitable world.

It is and the words are of the forgotten English writer William Gerhardie, on Chekhov, but so appropriate for Narayan that sense of the temporary nature of our existence on this earth at all events…through which human beings, scenery, and even the very shallowness of things, are transfigured with a sense of disquieting importance.

It is a sense of temporary possession in a temporary existence that, in the face of the unknown, we dare not overvalue. It is as if his people hastened to express their worthless individualities, since that is all they have, and were aghast that they should have so little in them to express: since the

 

Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh

Train to Pakistan’ is the first novel of Khushwant Singh (KS). It was titled ‘Mano Majra’ but it is better known by the title of ‘Train to Pakistan’. This novel is based on the Hindu – Muslim – Sikh riots of 1947 which followed the partition of India, when India was divided into two countries when ‘India made its tryst with destiny’. This novel gives vivid accounts of the massacres of Hindus and Muslims, especially on the border towns of India. Train loads of dead bodies used to arrive from Pakistan to border station of Atari. They were filled with corpses of men, women, children and oldies. On the bogies of those trains filled with corpses Pakistanis wrote – Gift to India from Pakistan. These events lead to mass killings of Muslims in India. People were killed without mercy. Men were killed with swords and spears while their women and sisters and mothers and daughters were ruthlessly gang-raped and then their breasts were slashed with spears while their children were killed in front of them and women left to bleed to death.
Similar was the fate of Hindus who were coming from Pakistan. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed in this insanity that followed in the communal riots of 1947.
This novel is based on that dark staunch naked barbaric bitter and dirty truth of Indian Independence, which we call DIVISION. After all, not everyone got what they wanted.
The Characters
The main character is Mano Majra, the border town where in the story is based. I have not officially studied literature so I don’t honestly know weather it is correct to call a town a character of the story but I will do so. This town receives the train filled of corpses not once but twice and that leads to subsequent departure of all Muslims from this town. (This is talked about in second heading of this review).
Bhai Meet Singh is the bhai (caretaker) of Gurudwara of town. He is a short and fat person who is generally dressed in his dirty underpants.
Hukum Chand is the magistrate who is specially appointed to Mano Majra and other nearby towns. He comes in his American car but he later resigns to the heavy communal tension in the town.
Juggut Singh or Jugga is a local badmash (bad) character who has to go to the police station once a week. He is six feet tall, broad and stocky man, probably the strongest man of the area. Malli is a dacoit with his gang and Jugga and Malli are arch rivals of each other. Iqbal is a mysterious character. Through out the novel I was not able to clearly understand weather he is a Muslim or a Sikh. But he is foreign educated person and people of Mano Majra respect his for that and call him Babu Sahib (Respected Sir).
Imam Baksh is the mulla of Mosque of the town. He is half blind due to cataract and his only daughter Nooran is the love of Jugga (in physical sense, predominantly) who carries in her womb two months old child of Jugga.
These are some of the main characters, worth mentioning. Some other come and go.
The Story
Story is pretty simple. It is about the sacrifice of one man to save a few hundred lives while insanity prevails everywhere. It is the story of one man wrestling with his thoughts and debating with himself weather it is correct to stand in front of 50 armed men waiting to kill hundreds of their own species, to stop because what they are going to do is immoral.
Iqbal debates with himself. The dialogue that he has with himself during the end of story is great to read. The protagonist talks about religion and the limited and constipated perception that it has in India. He talks about the irony of proving one’s Sikhism to stay alive in an insane asylum that India had become that time. He talks about the uselessness of talking logic and morals in front of people who have become bloodthirsty. They will rather thrust a sword in your stomach and proceed and call you a traitor rather then listen to the morality you are talking about.
Iqbal is the person who sacrifices his life to save a train full of Muslims who are refugees in their own motherland and are going to Pakistan while an army of lunatic men armed with all sorts of modern and traditional weapons waiting to kill and rape and abduct those innocent muslims going to Pakistan, a land where they will be called ‘Muhajir’ (refugees) and will be seen with an eye of disgust because they came from India, and will again become refugees in a country that was made for them. So much for the irony of ‘tryst that India made with its destiny’ And Finally
The novel gives detailed accounts of the haunting scenes of train load of butchered Hindus arriving from Pakistan with their ravaged women and stabbed children. It gives food for thought and makes one think; weather what happened was right or wrong.
I tell you one thing, it is very difficult to determine that who started the communal riots of 1947 and upto what extent the morals and religions of both sides permit the killings but one thing is for sure, that 1947 took away a lot from us, both India and Pakistan, something that can never be returned. This is one novel that is depressing, sad, vivid and thought provoking to read. It is more of a documentary as said by the author.
But is the bitter dark dirty barbaric naked insane and bloody truth of something that every Indian and Pakistani can very hardly forget.
I hope you all read it.
I will not sign off happy reading this time folks, this book needs to be read.
And it is going to be very tough to enjoy it, This is so full of truth.
Do Read it,
Khagesh Gautam

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

The novel centres on Elizabeth Bennet, the second of the five daughters of a country gentleman. Mr Bennet is a bookish man, and somewhat neglectful of his responsibilities. Mrs Bennet is a woman lacking in social graces and primarily concerned with finding suitable husbands for her five daughters. Jane Bennet, the eldest daughter, is distinguished by the kindness of her attitudes and her beauty; Elizabeth Bennet, the second daughter, shares her father's keen wit and occasionally sarcastic outlook; Mary is not pretty, but is studious, devout and musical albeit lacking in taste; Kitty, the fourth sister follows where her younger sister leads, while Lydia is flirtatious and unrestrained.
The narrative opens with news in the Bennet family that Mr Bingley, a wealthy, charismatic and sociable young bachelor, is moving into Netherfield Park in the neighbourhood. Mr Bingley is soon well received, while his friend Mr Darcy makes a less favourable impression by appearing proud and condescending at a ball that they attend (he detests dancing and is not much for light conversation). Mr Bingley singles out Jane for particular attention, and it soon becomes apparent that they have formed an attachment to each other, though Jane does not alter her conduct for him, confessing her great happiness only to Lizzie. By contrast, Darcy slights Elizabeth, who overhears and jokes about it despite feeling a budding resentment.
On paying a visit to Mr Bingley's sister, Caroline, Jane is caught in a heavy downpour, catches cold, and is forced to stay at Netherfield for several days. Elizabeth arrives to nurse her sister and is thrown into frequent company with Mr Darcy, who begins to act less coldly towards her.

Illustration by Hugh Thomson representing Mr Collins protesting that he never reads novels.

Mr Collins, a clergyman, and heir to the Bennet estate, pays a visit to the Bennets. Mr Bennet and Elizabeth are much amused by his obsequious veneration of his employer, the noble Lady Catherine de Bourgh, as well as by his self-important and pedantic nature. It soon becomes apparent that Mr Collins has come to Longbourn to choose a wife from among the Bennet sisters (his cousins) and Elizabeth is singled out. Elizabeth forms an acquaintance with Mr Wickham, a militia officer who relates having been very seriously mistreated by Mr Darcy, despite having been a godson and favourite of Mr Darcy's father. This and Elizabeth's attraction to Mr Wickham, increase her dislike of Mr Darcy.
At a ball given by Mr Bingley at Netherfield, Mr Darcy becomes aware of a general expectation that Mr Bingley and Jane will marry, and the Bennet family, with the exception of Jane and Elizabeth, make a public display of poor manners and decorum. The following morning, Mr Collins proposes marriage to Elizabeth, who refuses him, much to her mother's distress. Mr Collins recovers and promptly becomes engaged to Elizabeth's close friend Charlotte Lucas, a homely woman with few prospects. Mr Bingley abruptly quits Netherfield and returns to London, devastating Jane, and Elizabeth becomes convinced that Mr Darcy and Caroline Bingley have colluded to separate him from Jane.
Jane is persuaded by letters from Caroline Bingley that Mr Bingley is not in love with her, but goes on an extended visit to her aunt and uncle Gardiner in London in the hope of maintaining her relationship with Caroline if not with Charles Bingley. Whilst there she visits Caroline and eventually her visit is returned. She does not see Mr Bingley and is forced to realise that Caroline doesn't care for her.
In the spring, Elizabeth visits Charlotte and Mr Collins in Kent. Elizabeth and her hosts are frequently invited to Rosings Park, home of Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Darcy's aunt; coincidentally, Darcy also arrives to visit. Elizabeth meets Darcy's cousin, Colonel Fitzwilliam, who vouches for Darcy's loyalty, using as an example how Darcy had recently stepped in on behalf of a friend, who had formed an attachment to a woman against whom "there were some very strong objections." Elizabeth rightly assumes that the said friend is none other than Mr Bingley, and her dislike of Darcy deepens. Thus she is of no mood to accept when Darcy arrives and, quite unexpectedly, confesses love for her and begs her hand in marriage. His proposal is flattering, he is a very distinguished man, but it is delivered in a manner ill suited to recommend it. He talks of love but also of revulsion at her inferior position and family. Despite assertions to the contrary, he assumes she will accept him. Elizabeth rebukes him, and a heated discussion follows; she charges him with destroying her sister's and Bingley's happiness, with treating Mr Wickham disgracefully, and with having conducted himself towards her in an arrogant, ungentleman-like manner. Mr Darcy, shocked, ultimately responds with a letter giving a good account of his actions: Wickham had exchanged his legacies for a cash payment, only to return after frittering away the money to reclaim the forfeited inheritance; he then attempted to elope with Darcy's young sister Georgiana, and thereby secure her fortune for himself. Regarding Jane and Bingley, Darcy claims he had observed no reciprocal interest in Jane for Bingley, and had assumed her not to be in love with him. In addition to this, he cites the "want of propriety" in the behaviour of Mr and Mrs Bennet and her three younger daughters. Elizabeth, who had previously despaired over this very behavior, is forced to admit the truth of Mr Darcy's observations, and begins to wonder whether she has misjudged him.

Elizabeth tells her father that Darcy was responsible for uniting Lydia and Wickham. This is one of the two earliest illustrations of Pride and Prejudice.^[4] The clothing styles reflect the time the illustration was engraved (the 1830s), not the time the novel was written or set.

Some months later, Elizabeth and her aunt and uncle Gardiner visit Pemberley, Darcy's estate, believing he will be absent for the day. He returns unexpectedly, and though surprised, he is gracious and welcoming. He treats the Gardiners with great civility, surprising Elizabeth who assumes he will "decamp immediately" on learning who they are. Darcy introduces Elizabeth to his sister, and Elizabeth begins to acknowledge her attraction to him. Their re-acquaintance is cut short, however, by the news that Lydia has eloped with Mr Wickham. Elizabeth and the Gardiners return to Longbourn (the Bennet family home), where Elizabeth grieves that her renewed acquaintance with Mr Darcy will end as a result of her sister's disgrace.

Lydia and Wickham are soon found, and persuaded to marry thus enabling the Bennet family to preserve some appearance of decorum. Jane, Elizabeth and Mr Bennet realise that their Uncle Gardiner must have bribed Wickham to marry Lydia and are ashamed of their indebtedness and inability to repay him. Mrs Bennet, quite typically has no such scruples and is ecstatic. Mr and Mrs Wickham visit Longbourn, where Lydia lets slip that Mr Darcy was in attendance at their wedding but that this was to have been a secret. Elizabeth is able to discover by letter from her aunt Mrs Gardiner, that in fact Mr Darcy was responsible for finding the couple and negotiating their marriage, at great personal and monetary expense. Elizabeth is shocked and flattered as "her heart did whisper that he had done it for her" but is unable to dwell further on the topic due to Mr Bingley's return and subsequent proposal to Jane, who immediately accepts.
Lady Catherine de Bourgh pays an unexpected visit to Longbourn. She has heard a rumour that Elizabeth will marry Mr Darcy and attempts to persuade Elizabeth to agree not to marry. Lady Catherine wants Mr Darcy to marry her daughter (his cousin) Anne De Bourgh and thinks Elizabeth is beneath him. Elizabeth refuses her demands. Disgusted, Lady Catherine leaves, promising that the marriage can never take place. Elizabeth assumes she will apply to Darcy and is worried that he may be persuaded.
Darcy returns to Longbourn. Chance allows Elizabeth and Darcy a rare moment alone. She immediately thanks him for intervening in the case of Lydia and Wickham. He renews his proposal of marriage and is promptly accepted. Elizabeth soon learns that his hopes were revived by his aunt's report of Elizabeth's refusal to promise not to marry him.
The novel closes with a "happily-ever-after" chapter including a summary of the remaining lives of the main characters. There is no description of either Jane or Elizabeth's wedding. None of the characters change very much in this summary, but Kitty has grown slightly more sensible from association with Jane and Elizabeth and distance from Lydia, and Lady Catherine condescends to visit the Darcys eventually.

The Complete Poetical Works of "Percy Bysshe Shelley"

The Complete Poetical Works of "Percy Bysshe Shelley"
THE COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS OF PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY contains dozens of poems by noted English Romantic poet Percy Shelley.Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) was an English poet and writer; he is regarded as one of the most important English Romantic poets. Born to a wealthy family, Shelley had a troubled youth. His studies at Eton were poor, and at nineteen he eloped with a 16-year old. He later abandoned his first wife and married Mary Wollstonecraft, the author of FRANKENSTEIN. Shelley drowned in Italy just before his thirtieth birthday.

"As a love of truth is the only motive which actuates the Author of this little tract, he earnestly entreats that those of his readers who may discover any deficiency in his reasoning, or may be in possession of proofs which his mind could never obtain, would offer them, together with their objections to the Public, as briefly, as methodically, as plainly as he has taken the liberty of doing."

— Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Necessity of Atheism

"There Is No God. This negation must be understood solely to affect a creative Deity. The hypothesis of a pervading Spirit co-eternal with the universe remains unshaken."

— Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Necessity of Atheism

A Poet's Mind

Rabindranath Tagore (7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941),sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath who reshaped his region's literature and music. Author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", he became the first non-European Nobel laureate by earning the 1913 Prize in Literature. In translation his poetry was viewed as spiritual and mercurial; his seemingly mesmeric persona, floccose locks, and empyreal garb garnered him a prophet-like aura in the West. His "elegant prose and magical poetry" remain largely unknown outside Bengal.
 A Pirali Brahmin from Kolkata, Tagore wrote poetry as an eight-year-old. At age sixteen, he cheekily released his first substantial poems under the pseudonym Bh?nusi?ha ("Sun Lion"), which were seized upon by the region's literary grandees as long-lost classics. He graduated to his first short stories and dramas and the aegis of his birth name by 1877. As a humanist, universalist internationalist, and strident anti-nationalist he denounced the Raj and advocated for independence from Britain. As an exponent of the Bengal Renaissance he advanced a vast canon that comprised paintings, sketches and doodles, hundreds of texts, and some two thousand songs; his legacy endures also in the institution he founded, Visva-Bharati University.
   
A Poet"s Mind, is a selection of quotations from the vast range of literary works of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore poet, Song writer, novelist, educationist, philosopher among others. A Nobel laureate, Tagore became a world figure not only for his poems and songs but also for his thoughts and ideas. This book offers a glimpse into that mind through an assortment of his quotations on Life, Love and Motivation. Read the quotations for a deeper perception of life, or for inspiration.