English Summary

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The Story of My Life Summary Chapter 2

Helen talks about the days after the illness when she was coping with darkness and silence. She began to use sign language to communicate with people around her. She developed a strong bond with her mother. Frustration often led to bouts of aggression.

Helen describes the Christmas celebrations at home and reveals anecdotes of time spent with Martha Washington and her dog Belle. She talks about the accident with fire and how she had locked her mother in the pantry by mistake. She describes the arrival of Miss Sullivan and how she too was locked up by Helen in her room and was subsequently rescued by Helen’s father. She also talks about how she coped with her father’s death. She talks about her attitude towards her sister.

This chapter describes how Helen coped with the darkness that she had to face after her illness. She had to use sign language to communicate with the people around her. Her frustration at not being able to communicate with those around her, led to bouts of aggression. The only person who could reach out to her was her mother, which led to the strengthening of the bond between them.

Helen also recollects the happy times she spent in the kitchen and playing in and around the house with Martha Washington, the daughter of their cook, and Belle, her dog. Both Martha and Helen were always up to some mischief or the other and one day they almost cut off each other’s hair before they were stopped by Helen’s mother. The chapter also describes how Helen learnt to survive and communicate with the people around her in spite of her blindness and deafness.

An incident is related where Helen learnt to use a lock, and locked her mother in the pantry by mistake. This incident caused her mother to decide to find a teacher for her, to help control Helen’s growing indiscipline. Soon after, Miss Sullivan was engaged as Helen’s teacher, but was locked into her room by Helen on the very first day. In the chapter, Helen describes her father as being loving and indulgent who loved his family, especially Helen.

She remembers his caressing touch and his eager delight in doing whatever pleased her. But her first personal experience with death came when she heard the news about her father’s death due to some illness. Helen also acknowledges her jealousy towards her little sister who seemed to take up all the care and time of their mother. The chapter also mentions how Helen almost killed her infant sister by overturning the cradle.

The Story of My Life Summary Chapter 2 Questions and Answers

Question 1.
How did Helen learn about her surroundings after she became blind and how did she connect with the people around her?
Answer:
Helen used her hands to feel every object and observe every movement that took place around her.
She communicated with others by making code signs like shaking her head to say ‘no’, nodding her head to say ‘yes’, a pull meaning ‘come’ and a push for ‘go’.

Question 2.
Why did Helen rush to her room when she felt the front door shutting?
Answer:
Helen understood that the shutting of the front door indicated the arrival of some guests so she ran up to her room to dress up in clothes she felt were appropriate to receive guests.

Question 3.
What does the above incident reveal about the little girl?
Answer:
It reveals that in spite of Helen’s handicaps, she was extremely bright and observant and tried hard to behave like those around her.

Question 4.
How did Helen realise that she was different from those around her and how did this affect her?
Answer:
Helen realised that her mother used her mouth to communicate instead of using sign language like she did. So she would touch the lips of the people while they were talking and imitate the movements of the lips. But when she was not able to talk like them, she would get frustrated and angry and start kicking and screaming till she was exhausted.

Question 5.
Did Helen realise when she was being naughty? How did this make her feel?
Answer:
Helen did realise when she was being naughty, but she did not feel any deep regret at her behaviour.

Question 6.
Who were Helen’s companions as a young child? How did she behave with them?
Answer:
Martha Washington, the daughter of Helen’s cook, and her dog Belle were her constant companions as a child. Helen was very domineering by nature. She would force Martha to do what she pleased and tried to do the same with the dog without success.

Question 7.
Why did Martha allow Helen to dominate her?
Answer:
Helen was a very strong and adventurous child who loved taking risks. She would also use physical force to get her way; Martha let her do as she pleased to avoid getting beaten by her.

Question 8.
How did the two girls spend their time together?
Answer:
The girls spent a lot of time in the kitchen kneading dough balls, helping to make ice cream, grinding coffee, fighting over the cake-bowls, feeding hens and turkeys, stealing food and eating it in hiding. They also hunted for guinea-fowl eggs, visited the horses in the stables and touched the cows as they were milked.

Question 9.
How did Helen enjoy Christmas?
Answer:
Helen loved the smell of Christmas cooking and helped in the grinding of the spices and picking of the raisins. She licked off the stirring spoons.

Question 10.
Pick out an example to show that Martha was as mischievous as Helen.
Answer:
One day, when both the girls were sitting on the veranda, cutting out paper dolls, they got bored and started cutting shoe strings and leaves of plants. Suddenly, Helen cut off one of Martha’s curls and Martha retaliated by cutting off one of Helen’s curls. They were stopped short of cutting each other’s hair by Helen’s mother.

Question 11.
“This vexed me and the lesson always ended in a one-sided boxing match.” What vexed Helen and who did she have the boxing match with?
Answer:
Helen wanted her dog Belle to bark at birds and chase them as dogs normally do. But Belle would become rigid on seeing a bird and not obey her commands. This always angered Helen and she would then box her dog.

Question 12.
How did the dog react on being hit by Helen?
Answer:
Helen’s dog, Belle, on being hit, would get up, stretch herself and move away from Helen.

Question 13.
How did Helen almost burn herself up on day?
Answer:
Helen had wet her apron, so she spread it over the fireplace in the sitting room to dry it. As the apron took time to dry, she went closer to the fire and threw it over the ashes. The apron caught fire and she almost burnt herself in the process.

Question 14.
Who saved Helen from burning?
Answer:
Helen was saved by her old nurse, Viny who threw a blanket over her and put out the fire.

Question 15.
Why did Helen lock up her mother?
Answer:
Helen locked up her mother, by mistake, when she learned how to turn a key and lock a door.

Question 16.
What made her parents decide that Helen needed some form of disciplining and education?
Answer:
After Helen locked her mother in the pantry and sat outside laughing at her mother’s plight, her parents felt the need for a teacher to discipline Helen and teach her right from wrong.

Question 17.
Why did Miss Sullivan have to be rescued from her room? Who rescued her?
Answer:
Helen locked Miss Sullivan in her room and refused to reveal where she had hidden the key. Her father had to rescue Miss Sullivan with the help of a ladder.

Question 18.
Who were the other members in Helen’s family?
Answer:
Along with her parents, Helen lived with her two half-brothers and younger sister, Mildred.

Question 19.
Cite examples from the lesson that show Helen’s father to be a very patient man.
Answer:
Helen’s father would spend hours with Helen in the garden, taking her from tree to tree and vine to vine. He would tell her stories by spelling the entire story on her hand and wait for her to repeat his anecdotes to him.

Question 20.
“This was my first great sorrow.” What is Helen talking about in this line?
Answer:
Helen is talking about her father’s death. He died suddenly after a brief illness.

Question 21.
Why did Helen throw her sister out of the cradle?
Answer:
Helen found her sister sleeping in a cradle, where she usually put her doll Nancy to sleep. In a fit of rage, she overturned the cradle and almost killed her sister.

Question 22.
What does Helen mean by the phrase—“valley of twofold solitude”?
Answer:
Solitude means loneliness. For Helen, it was twofold because she could not hear. She was also lonely, unaware of feelings of care and sensitivity towards others. She was, thus, overcome by loneliness of the soul.

We have decided to create the most comprehensive English Summary that will help students with learning and understanding.

The Story of My Life Summary Chapter 1

Helen traces the origins of her family and talks about her early childhood. Her initial days were full of colour and laughter and she was the darling of the family. A mysterious illness left Helen blind, deaf and dumb. Those were the days of rebellion and indiscipline which Helen spent trying to make sense of a dark and silent world.

Helen starts her autobiography by tracing the origins of the family on both her father’s and mother’s side. She recollects certain incidents.from her early childhood which were full of colour and laughter. Being the first-born, she was the darling of the family. She was a normal child who could see and hear like other children. Even as a child, she had an eager and self- asserting disposition.

She vividly recounts the house where she lived till the time she was struck by the illness. The house was covered with vines, climbing roses and honeysuckles and its old-fashioned garden was the paradise of her childhood. However, when the mysterious illness struck her, it left her deaf and blind. Her parents were greatly distressed when they found out that their baby girl could no longer see.

Helen used to find solace in the garden, losing herself amongst the flowers and the vines. The only source of sustenance; was her mother’s love and the tenderness which soothed her pain. These were days of rebellion and indiscipline when she struggled to make sense of the dark and silent world that she was suddenly enveloped in.

The Story of My Life Summary Chapter 1 Questions and Answers

Question 1.
What does Helen mean by saying that “the shadows of the prison house are on the rest.. “?
Answer:
The expression means that Helen is not able to remember a large part of her childhood.

Question 2.
When and where was Helen born?
Answer:
Helen was born on 27 June 1880 in Tuscumbia, a town in northern Alabama.

Question 3.
What does Helen mean when she makes the statement, “it is true there is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors and no slave who has not had a king among his”?
Answer:
The author means that if one researches one’s lineage, the person will find all kinds of people who were their ancestors. That is, no family can have only powerful and rich people as their ancestors.

Question 4.
Who were Caspar Keller, Arthur H Keller and Kate Adams?
Answer:
Caspar was Helen’s grandfather, Arthur was her father and Kate her mother.

Question 5.
How do we know that the house in which Helen lived was very beautiful?
Answer:
Though the house was not very big, it was completely covered with vines, climbing roses and honeysuckle.
From the garden, it looked like an arbour. The porch of the house was covered by a screen of yellow roses and southern smilax and it was always buzzing with hummingbirds and bees.

Question 6.
How did Helen enjoy the beauties of her garden in spite of her blindness?
Answer:
Helen would feel the hedges and find different flowers by her sense of smell. She would find comfort in hiding her face in the cool leaves and grass. She wandered in the garden touching, feeling and smelling the various flowers, bushes and trees and could identify them accurately.

Question 7.
What does Helen, want to express through the statement “I came, I saw, I conquered”?
Answer:
Helen wants to express the fact that she was a much loved child especially as she was the first born in the family.

Question 8.
How did Helen get her name?
Answer:
Helen’s father had wanted to name her Mildred Campbell after an ancestor whom he had a high regard for, while her mother wanted to name her after her mother, whose maiden name was Helen Everett. However, by the time they reached the church for the ceremony, her father lost the name and when the minister asked him, he gave the name Helen Adams.

Question 9.
Give two examples to show that Helen was an intelligent baby.
Answer:
When she was six months old, Helen could say “How d’ye?” and one day she started saying “Tea” very clearly.
Even after her illness, she could recollect many of the words that she had learnt as a baby, like “water”.

Question 10.
What motivated Helen to take her first steps as a baby?
Answer:
One day, when Helen’s mother was giving her a bath, she was attracted by the flickering shadows of the leaves that were reflected on the bathroom floor. She got up from her mother’s lap and walked towards the reflection to try and catch it.

Question 11.
Why does Helen call February a dreary month?
Answer:
It was the month in which Helen was struck by an illness that left her deaf and blind. For her, it was a nightmarish experience.

Question 12.
For how long had Helen been able to see and hear?
Answer:
Helen was able to see and hear for the first 19 months of her life.

We have decided to create the most comprehensive English Summary that will help students with learning and understanding. in This article, we introduce The Adventure Summary

The Adventure Summary in English by Jayant Narlikar

The Adventure by Jayant Narlikar About the Author

The Adventure Summary in English

Professor Gangadharpant Gaitonde was travelling in the Jijamata Express on the Pune-Bombay route. This train was much faster than the Deccan Queen and he noticed that there were no industrial townships outside Pune. The train first stopped at Lonavala, 40 minutes after it started from Pune and then for a little while at Karjat. It went on even faster through Kalyan.

In the meantime, Professor Qaitonde, being a historian, was thinking of going to a big library in Bombay and looking through history books. He wanted to understand the present situation. He also decided to return to Pune and discuss with Rajendra Deshpande, who would surely help him understand what had happened. He hoped that a person called Rajendra Deshpande existed.

When the train stopped at a small station, Sarhad, an Anglo-Indian ticket-checker went around checking tickets. Khan Sahib informed Gangadharpant that that was where the British Raj began. He inquired if Gangadharpant was going to Bombay for the first time. Gangadharpant had not been to this Bombay before. He asked Khan Sahib how he would go to Peshawar. Khan Sahib replied that he would go to the Victoria Terminus and would take the Frontier Mail. It would go from Bombay to Delhi, then to Lahore and then Peshawar. He would reach the next day.

Then Khan Sahib discussed his business and Gangadharpant listened eagerly. As the train passed through the suburban rail traffic, Khan Sahib explained that the blue carriages carried the letters, GBMR, that meant Greater Bombay Metropolitan Railway. The Union Jack painted on each carriage was a reminder that they were in British territory.

When the train reached Victoria Terminus, the station looked remarkably neat and clean. Most of the staff was Anglo-Indian and Parsee along with a few British officers.

As Gangadharpant came out of the station he found himself facing an impressive building. It was the East India house headquarters of the East India Company. He was shocked, because as per the history books The East India Company had been shut down soon after 1857. But here it was prospering.

He walked ahead along Hornby Road but he found there was no Handloom House building. Instead, there were Boots and Woolworth departmental stores, grand offices of Lloyds, Barclays and other British banks, as in a typical high street of a town in England.

He entered the Forbes building and asked the English receptionist that he wished to meet Mr Vinay Gaitonde, his son. She searched through the telephone list and said that there was nobody with that name there. He was shocked. He had a quick lunch at a restaurant; he went to the Town Hall to the library of the Asiatic Society to solve the mystery of history.

In the library he started browsing through the five volumes of history books including his own. Volume one was about the history up to the period of Ashoka, volume two up to Samudragupta, volume three up to Mohammad Ghori and volume four up to the death of Aurangzeb. Reading volume five, Gangadharpant finally arrived on the precise moment where history had taken a different turn. That page in the book described the Battle of Panipat, and it mentioned that the Marathas won the battle. Abdali was defeated and he was chased back to Kabul by the triumphant Maratha army led by Sadashivrao Bhau and his nephew, the young Vishwasrao.

The book did not give a detailed explanation of the battle but explained in detail its impact for the power struggle in Ipdia. Gangadharpant read the account eagerly. The style of writing was definitely his, but much to his surprise he was reading the explanation for the first time.

Their victory in the battle had not only increased the confidence of the Marathas but it also established their domination in northern India. The East India Company, observing these developments for the time being postponed its policy of expanding in India’s territory.

For the Peshwas it resulted in an increased power of Bhausaheb and Vishwasrao who succeeded his father in 1780 A.D. The threat, Dadasaheb, was pushed to the background and he finally left state politics.

The East India Company was disappointed, as the new Maratha ruler, Vishwasrao and his brother, Madhavrao, combined political sharpness with bravery and extended their control all over India. The Company’s hold was then limited to places near Bombay, Calcutta and Madras. This was exactly like that of the Portuguese and the French.

The Peshwas kept the Mughal rule alive in Delhi to manipulate the situation. In the nineteenth century these rulers from Pune were shrewd enough to recognise the beginning of the technological age in Europe. They set up their own centres for science and technology. The East India Company saw another chance to enlarge its influence. It offered aid and experts. They were accepted only to make the local centres self-sufficient.

In the twentieth century more changes were brought about because of the Western influence.

Now, India moved towards a democracy. By then, the Peshwas had lost their zeal and democratically elected bodies slowly replaced them. The Sultanate at Delhi survived this change, mainly because it exercised no influence. The Shahenshah of Delhi was just a nominal head to rubberstamp the suggestions made by the parliament.

Gangadharpant began to understand India as a country that had learnt to be self-reliant and knew what self-respect was. It was in a position of strength but for only business reasons, it had allowed the British to be there. Bombay was the only colony on the subcontinent. That lease was to expire in the year 2001, according to a treaty of 1908.

Gangadharpant could not help comparing the country he knew with what he was viewing now. But he had to find how the Marathas had won the battle. For this he started looking for reports of the battle itself. Finally he found Bhausahebanchi Bakhar. Even though he rarely trusted the Bakhars for historical verification, he found them entertaining to read. He managed to find a brief mention of how Vishwasrao luckily survived his close brush with death.

At eight o’clock the library was to close. As Gangadharpant left the table he put some notes into his right pocket. Forgetfully, he also thrust the Bakhar into his left pocket.

After a measly meal at the guesthouse, he leisurely walked towards the Azad Maidan. There a lecture was to take place. Professor Gaitonde walked towards the pandal and was awestruck staring at the platform. The presidential chair was vacant. He was drawn to it. The speaker stopped his lecture, as he was too surprised to continue. But the audience shouted at him to leave the chair.

Professor Gaitonde went to the mike and expressed his views. He said that an unchaired lecture was like Shakespeare’s Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark. The audience was in no mood to listen but Gangadharpant was an experienced orator. He braved a shower of tomatoes, eggs and other objects. Finally, the audience came to the stage to throw him out but Gangadharpant had disappeared in the crowd.

This was all he had to tell Rajendra. All he knew was that he was found in the Azad Maidan in the morning. He was back in the world he was familiar with. But he did not know where he had spent the two days when he was absent from there.

The story astonished Rajendra. He asked him where he had been, just before his accident with the truck. Professor Gaitonde said that he was thinking of the disaster theory and its consequences for history. Professor Gaitonde produced the page tom out of a book as evidence that he had not been imagining things. Rajendra read the text and seemed equally surprised.

Gangadharpant said that he had intended to return the book to the library but in the episode of Azad Maidan, the book was lost and only this tom-off page remained. And that had the essential evidence.

Rajendra read the page; how Vishwasrao narrowly missed the bullet; and how that event, taken as a sign by the Maratha army, turned things to their advantage. Then Gangadharpant took out his own copy of Bhausahebanchi Bakhar, where the bullet hit Vishwasrao.

Rajendra and Professor Gaitonde were both very curious to know the facts.

Rajendra tried to explain Professor Gaitonde’s experience on the basis of two scientific theories. He explained that Professor Gaitonde had heard a lot about the upheaval theory at that seminar. He wanted to relate it to the Battle of Panipat. He said that wars fought face to face on open grounds offered excellent examples of this theory. The Maratha army was facing Abdali’s troops on the field of Panipat. There was no great disparity between them as their protection was similar. So, a lot depended on the leadership and the confidence of the troops.

When Vishwasrao was killed, it proved to be the important moment of change. His uncle, Bhausaheb, rushed into the fight and was never seen again. The troops were thoroughly demotivated as they had lost their important leaders. This led to their crushing defeat. The tom page was the path taken by the battle, when the bullet missed Vishwasrao, thus its effect on the troops was also just the opposite. Gangadharpant said that there was a likelihood of this as similar statements are made about the Battle of Waterloo, which Napoleon could have won. But since we live in a unique world, which has a unique history, this might just be guesswork but not reality.

Rajendra made his second point. He said ‘reality’ is what we experience directly with our senses or indirectly via instruments. But it is not limited to what we see.

Experiments on atoms and their constituent particles have proved that reality may not be exclusive. The Physicist discovered that the behaviour of these systems cannot be forecast conclusively even if all the physical laws governing those systems are known. For example if a bullet were fired from a gun in a given direction at a given speed, one would know where it would be at a later time. But one cannot make such an assertion for the electron. It may be here, there, anywhere. Professor Gaitonde felt that the quantum theory offered a lack of determinism.

Rajendra argued his case further. He asked Professor Gaitonde to imagine many world pictures. In each world the electron could be found in different location. Once the observer found where it was, he would know which world we were talking about. But all those alternative worlds could exist just the same.

Professor Gaitonde wanted to know if there was any contact between those many worlds.

Rajendra said that there was a possibility both ways. We know the exact route of the planet. The electron could be orbiting in any of a large number of specified states. These states may be used to identify the world. In state no. 1 the electron was in a state of higher energy. In state no. 2 it was in a state of lower energy. It could make a jump from high to low energy and send out a pulse of radiation. Or a pulse of radiation could knock it out of state no. 2 into state no. 1. Such transitions were common in microscopic systems. These transitions could happen on a macroscopic level as well.

He felt that Gangadharpant could have made a transition from one world to another and back again. He said that his theory was that disastrous situations offer completely different options for the world to proceed. It seemed that so far as reality was concerned all alternatives were viable but the observer could experience only one of them at a time.

By making a shift, Gangadharpant was able to experience two worlds although one at a time. The one he lived in and the one where he spent two days. One had the history we know, the other a different history. The separation or split took place in the Battle of Panipat. He had neither travelled to the past nor to the future but was in the present but experiencing a different world. There must be many more different worlds at different points of time.

Gangadharpant wanted to know why had he made the transition. Rajendra said that there were many unsolved questions in science and this was one of them. However, he made a guess. He felt that Gangadharpant needed some contact to cause a transition. Perhaps, at the time of the collision he was thinking about the catastrophe theory and its role in wars or perhaps he was wondering about the Battle of Panipat and the neurons in his brain activated the transition.

Professor Gaitonde said he found the explanation probable. He had been wondering what path history would have taken if the result of the battle had gone the other way. That was what he was going to speak about in the Azad Maidan.

Rajendra laughed and said that now he was in a better position, as he would talk of his real life experience rather than just an assumption. But Gangadharpant looked serious. He said that his thousandth address was made on the Azad Maidan where he was so rudely interrupted. The Professor Gaitonde who disappeared while defending his chair on the platform will now never be seen presiding at another meeting as he had expressed his regrets to the organisers of the Panipat seminar.

The Adventure Summary Questions and Answers

Question 1.
‘That is, assuming that in this world there existed someone called Rajendra Deshpande!’ Why does Professor Gaitonde feel so?
Answer:
Professor Gaitonde had gone through a strange and a harrowing experience. He had been literally transported into an alternative universe. In the alternative world the reality was very different. History had altered its course. Now back into the real world Professor Gaitonde, as a historian felt he would go to a big library and browse through history books and would return to Pune and have a long talk with Rajendra Deshpande, to help him understand what had happened. After the queer happening, he was unsure about the reality and wondered if Rajendra Deshpande existed.

Question 2.
What were the things that Professor Gaitonde noticed as the train entered the British Raj territory?
Answer:
As the train touched Sarhad, from where the British Raj began, an Anglo-Indian in uniform went through the train checking permits. The blue carriages of the train carried the letters GBMR on the side—an acronym for ‘Greater Bombay Metropolitan Railway’. There was the tiny Union Jack painted on each carriage as a . reminder that they were in British territory. As the train stopped at its destination, Victoria Terminus, the station looked remarkably neat and clean. The staff was mostly made up of Anglo-Indians and Parsees along with a handful of British officers.

Question 3.
Where was Khan Sahib going? How did he intend to reach there?
Answer:
Khan Sahib was going to Peshawar. After the train reached Victoria Terminus he would take the Frontier Mail out of Central,-the same night. From Bombay he would go to Delhi, then to Lahore and then Peshawar. It would be a long journey and he would reach Peshawar two days later.

Question 4.
What was the strange reality that Professor Gaitonde saw as he stepped out of the station?
Answer:
As Professor Gaitonde came out of the station, he saw an impressive building. The letters on it revealed that it was the East India headquarters of the East India Company. He was shocked as it was supposed to have had stopped operating soon after the events of 1857 but here it was flourishing.

Question 5.
What came as the biggest blow to Professor Gaitonde?
Answer:
Professor Gaitonde was shocked to see the East India Company flourishing, a different set of shops and office buildings at Hornby Road. But when he turned right along Home Street and entered Forbes building, a greater shock awaited him. He asked for his son Mr Vinay Gaitonde but the English receptionist, looked through the telephone list, the staff list and then through the directory of employees of all the branches of the firm but could not find anyone of that name.

Question 6.
What did Professor Gaitonde decide to do when the reality that he was living seemed very strange?
Answer:
When Professor Gaitoride saw unfamiliar sights and felt that he was reliving history he was very surprised but not finding his son as an employee in Forbes baffled him completely. He decided to go to the library of the Asiatic Society to solve the riddle of history. So he made his way to the Town Hall.

Question 7.
What books did he browse through in the library? What did he discover?
Answer:
In the Town Hall library, he asked for a list of history books including his own.

When he got the five volumes, he started looking through them from the beginning. Volume one dealt with the history up to the period of Ashoka, volume two up to Samudragupta, volume three up to Mohammad Ghori, and volume four up to the death of Aurangzeb. This was history as he had known. However in the last (fifth) volume, history had taken a different turn during the Battle of Panipat. The book mentioned that the Marathas won it handsomely and Abdali was chased back to Kabul by the triumphant Maratha army led by Sadashivrao Bhau and his nephew, the young Vishwasrao.

Question 8.
How did the victory of the Peshwas in the Battle of Panipat help them?
Answer:
The victory in the battle was not only successful in building their confidence tremendously but it also established the supremacy of the Marathas in northern India. The East India Company, watching these events temporarily deferred its plan to spread out further.

For the Peshwas the immediate result was that the influence of Bhausaheb and Vishwasrao increased and Vishwarao succeeded his father in 1780 A.D. The rabble-rouser, Dadasaheb, had to retire from state politics.

Question 9.
What was the effect of the victory of the Peshwas on the East India Company?
Answer:
The East India Company was alarmed when the new Maratha ruler, Vishwasrao, and his brother, Madhavrao, expanded their influence all over India. The Company was limited to pockets of influence near Bombay, Calcutta and Madras. However, in the nineteenth century the Marathas were aware of the importance of the technological age starting in Europe. Hence when they set up their own centres for science and technology, the East India Company saw another chance to extend its influence, it offered support and experts. But they were accepted only to make the local centres self-sufficient.

Question 10.
What was the final outcome of the Peshwas?
Answer:
During the twentieth century, inspired by the West, India moved towards a democracy. By then, the Peshwas had lost their enterprise and democratically elected bodies slowly but surely replaced them. The Sultanate at Delhi survived even this change because it exerted no real influence. The Shahenshah of Delhi was a nominal head to rubber-stamp the ‘recommendations’ made by the central parliament.

We have decided to create the most comprehensive English Summary that will help students with learning and understanding.

The Browning Version Summary in English by Terence Rattigan

The Browning Version by Terence Rattigan About the Author

The Browning Version Summary in English

Terence Rattigan’s play, ‘The Browning Version’, was first performed on 8 September 1948 at the Phoenix Theatre, London. The play is about the last few days in the career of Andrew Crocker-Harris, an old Classics teacher at a British public school, where he’s been teaching for eighteen years. The man’s academic life is fading away and he deeply feels he has become obsolete. He is forced to retire prematurely owing to ill- health. Lack of success with his pupils has blighted his youthful ambition and promise, and he faces a future of poverty and disappointment. His talk at the end of the year prize giving is replaced by that of the popular sports master and the school will not give him his pension because of his early retirement, although he was depending on it.

This is an extract from the play. This part of the play underlines the bitter feelings of a student towards his teacher. These are brought out through a conversation between Frank Hunter, a young schoolmaster, and Taplow the student. Taplow has come for his tutoring session with Crocker-Harris, although it is the last day of school, but Crocker-Harris has not yet arrived. Frank, the science teacher, finds Taplow and starts talking to him.

Frank asks Taplow, if they had met earlier. Taplow introduces himself and informs him that he is a student in the lower fifth grade. He feels that he would specialise next term if he got his class. He also tells Frank that Mr Crocker-Harris doesn’t tell the students the results like the other teachers. As a rule, the class results should only be announced by the headmaster on the last day of term, but Taplow feels that none other than Mr Crocker-Harris seems to be so fastidious about the rule. Hence, Taplow would have to wait to know his result.

On Frank’s asking, Taplow tells him if the grades are good he would opt for science. Frank laments sadly that they get all the idlers. Taplow objects saying that he has opted for science because he is extremely interested in science. He feels science is more interesting than studying Classics such as The Agamemnon, which he calls “muck”. Thinking that he has gone too far, he corrects himself saying the plot is good. It is about a wife murdering her husband, he says. But what he did not like was the way it was taught to them. It had a lot of Greek words and Mr Crocker-Harris punished them for not getting them right.

Frank realised that Taplow sounded bitter, and got to know from him that Taplow had been given extra work to do as he had missed a day of school the previous week when he was ill. It was the last day of school and he wished to play golf instead. Taplow continues saying that one would think that Mr Harris had enough to do as he was leaving the next day, instead of calling Taplow for extra work.

Frank consoles him saying that for being a good boy in taking extra work he would get his class the next day. Taplow feels that would be true of other teachers and not of Mr Harris. It was just the previous day that he had told Taplow—he had got what he deserved. Taplow feels that Mr Harris might have given him less marks to make him do extra work. He adds that Mr Harris is “hardly human”. After saying so, he apologises to Frank for talking too much.

Frank pretends to be unhappy but asks Taplow to repeat what Mr Harris had said to him. Taplow imitates him. Frank pretends to look strict and asks him to read Aeschylus and be quiet. He then asks Taplow at what time he was supposed to meet Mr Crocker-Harris. Taplow informs him that he was called at six-thirty. Frank tells Taplow that Mr Crocker-Harris was already ten minutes late. He suggests that Taplow could go off and play golf.

Taplow is shocked and expresses his apprehension if Mr Crocker-Harris should know. He was certain that nobody had ever done that with Mr Crocker-Harris.

Frank envies the effect Mr Crocker-Harris seems to have on the boys in the class; they seem to be scared to death of him. Taplow says that a few teachers, including Mr Crocker-Harris, are sadists, who get pleasure out of giving pain.

Frank asks him about the others. Taplow says that he would not like to name them, as everyone knows who they are. Students understand everything. He compliments Frank saying that he is different and fairly young.

Frank pretends to be outraged. Taplow continues calling Mr Crocker-Harris, the Crock; Taplow says that he is worse than a sadist. If he were a sadist, he wouldn’t be so frightening because in that case, at least, it would show he had some feelings. His inner being, feels Taplow is emotionless and withered like a dried-up nut and he seems to hate people liking him.

Frank tries to instigate Taplow by saying that the boys would have exploited that for their own advantage. Taplow then admits that strangely, despite everything Mr Crocker-Harris does, he still likes him. Taplow says that he has also noticed Mr Crocker-Harris feels uncomfortable about people liking him. To elaborate on this, he recalls an episode when in class Mr Crocker-Harris made one of his classical jokes. Nobody laughed because nobody understood it. However Taplow knew that it was meant to be funny, so he laughed. Mr Crocker-Harris, at once remarked, that he was pleased at the advance in Taplow’s knowledge of Latin since he had without difficulty understood what the rest of them did not. Mr Crocker-Harris then wanted him to explain what he had said to the rest of the class.

Just then the door opens and Millie Crocker-Harris enters. She is a thin woman in her late thirties, and more smartly dressed than the other schoolmasters’ wives. She stands looking at Taplow and Frank a few seconds before they notice her.

Frank is trying to ridicule Mr Crocker-Harris when Millie Crocker-Harris enters. But he seems infinitely relieved at seeing her. Taplow is a little worried. He asks Frank if Millie could have heard their conversation. Frank feels that she had overheard as she has been standing there for quite some time. Taplow is all the more worried about his ‘remove’. But Frank feels his fears are unfounded. Millie asks Taplow if he is waiting for her husband Mr Crocker-Harris. She informs him that he is at the Bursar’s and might be there quite some time. She suggests that he leaves.

Taplow is hesitant at first as Mr Crocker-Harris had asked to meet him. Millie suggests that he goes away for a quarter of an hour and then returns. Taplow asks her what if Mr Crocker-Harris was to arrive before he is back; Millie assures him that she would take the blame. She then takes a prescription out of the basket and asks him to do a job for Mr Crocker-Harris, by going to the chemist. Taplow leaves happily.

The Browning Version Summary Questions and Answers

Question 1.
Where does Taplow meet Frank? What does Taplow feel about being there?
Answer:
Taplow meets Frank at Mr Crocker-Harris’s office, at school. Taplow had been given extra work to do as he had missed a day of school the previous week when he was ill. It was the last day of school and he wished to play golf instead.

Question 2.
What subjects does Taplow want to opt for and why?
Answer:
Taplow wishes to opt for science if he manages good grades. He claims to be really interested in science and feels it is more interesting than studying classics such as ‘The Agamemnon’, which he calls “muck”—it had a lot of Greek words, and Mr Crocker-Harris punished them for not getting them right.

Question 3.
Why does Taplow feel that Mr Harris is “hardly human”?
Answer:
Taplow feels that putting in extra work would make no difference to Mr Harris. He had told Taplow that he had got what he deserved. Taplow suspects he might be awarded with fewer marks to make him do extra work. He feels Mr Harris is unfeeling—worse than a sadist, and thus calls him “hardly human”.

Question 4.
What does Frank suggest to Taplow about waiting for Mr Harris?
Answer:
When Taplow tells Frank that he was supposed to meet Mr Crocker-Harris at six-thirty, Frank tells Taplow that Mr Crocker-Harris was already ten minutes late. He suggests that Taplow could go and play golf. But Taplow is shocked and expresses his apprehension if Mr Crocker-Harris should know. He was certain that nobody had ever done that with Mr Crocker-Harris.

Question 5.
Why does Taplow feel that Mr Harris has no feelings?
Answer:
Taplow calls Mr Harris worse than a sadist. One is required to admit to feelings if considered a sadist. Mr Harris’s inside, feels Taplow, is like a nut and he seems to hate people liking him. He did not appreciate Taplow appreciating his jokes and embarrassed him in return.

Question 6.
How did Taplow try to express his liking for Mr Harris? What was the outcome?
Answer:
Taplow admits to liking Mr Harris and realized he felt uncomfortable about people liking him. He recalls an episode, in class, where Mr Crocker-Harris made one of his jokes to which nobody laughed. Taplow knew that it was meant to be funny, and laughed. To which, Mr Crocker-Harris teased Taplow about his knowledge of Latin and asked him to explain the joke to the class.

Question 7.
Who was Millie Crocker-Harris? What was she like?
Answer:
Millie Crocker-Harris was the young wife of Mr Crocker-Harris. She was a thin woman in her late thirties, and was more smartly dressed than the other schoolmasters’ wives.

Question 8.
How does Millie Crocker-Harris send Taplow away?
Answer:
Millie learns from Taplow that he was waiting for her husband and suggests he leaves for quarter of an hour since Mr Harris might be a while. Taplow is hesitant; Millie assures him she would take on the blame if Mr Harris arrives before that. She finally sends Taplow off to the chemist.

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The Ailing Planet: The Green Movements Role Summary in English by Nani Palkhivala

The Ailing Planet: The Green Movements Role by Nani Palkhivala About the Author

The Ailing Planet: The Green Movements Role Summary in English

The article, “The Ailing Planet: The Green Movement’s Role”, was written by Nani Palkhivala and published in The Indian Express on 24 November 1994. The issues that he raised regarding the declining health of the earth continue to have relevance.

The Green Movement, which started nearly twenty-five years ago, is one of the single most important movements that captivated the imagination of the entire human race. In 1972 the world’s first nationwide Green party was founded in New Zealand. Since then, the movement has moved ahead. Today, we have shifted from a superficial view to a view that takes into account all aspects including those related to the environment and ecology of the world.

This shift in human awareness was revolutionary since Copernicus, who stated in the sixteenth century that the earth and the other planets revolved round the sun. For the first time there is a growing worldwide realisation that ‘ the earth itself is a living organism. It has its own metabolic needs and fundamental processes, which need to be respected and preserved.

The earth, like a patient, had begun to show symptoms of failing health. It was then that we started realising our responsibilities to the planet. We are the caretakers of this inheritance, the earth which we need to preserve for our future generations.

The World Commission on Environment and Development popularised the concept of using natural resources while maintaining an ecological balance, without causing harm to the environment in 1987. The Commission defined the idea as growth that fulfils the needs of the present without harming the reserve of future generations to meet their needs. This implied that we ought to progress without depleting the natural resources that the future generations would need.

In the zoo at Lusaka, Zambia, there is a cage with a notice “The world’s most dangerous animal”. Inside the cage is a mirror where you see yourself. Various organisations in different countries helped in creating the awareness in human beings that they should not exploit the planet mindlessly. Human beings have realised the wisdom of shifting from a system based on domination to one based on partnership.

There are about 1.4 million living species that have been listed on the earth. Biologists think that there are about . three to a hundred million other living species that are still unknown.

Mr L.K. Jha in the Brandt Commission Report raised the question whether we wanted to leave behind a scorched, a sick environment for our coming generations. Mr Lester R. Brown in his book, The Global Economic Prospect, pointed out that the earth’smain biological systems are fisheries, forests, grasslands and croplands. These form the basis of the global economic system. They supply our food and provide almost all the raw materials for industry except minerals and petroleum-derived synthetics. In large areas of the world, these systems are reaching a level where their efficiency is being damaged.

Over-fishing is common, and forests are being destroyed for firewood for cooking. As a result, firewood has become so expensive in some places that it is more expensive than food. According to Dr Myres, the tropical forests which are powerhouses of evolution, as they house innumerable species, are facing extinction.

It has been well said that forests precede mankind; deserts follow. Human beings destroy forestland turning it into deserts. The world’s tropical forests are now being destroyed at the rate of forty to fifty million acres a year. As a result, people use dung for burning and this takes away from the soil an important natural fertiliser.
According to the World Bank we need to increase the rate of forest planting by five times to cope with the expected fuel wood demand.

James Speth, the President of the World Resources Institute, stated that we are losing an acre-and- a-half of forests every second. Article 48 A of the Constitution of India provides that the State shall try to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and wildlife of the country but unfortunately laws are never respected or enforced in India. Despite laws against “casteism, untouchabillity and bonded labour”, even after several years of the functioning of the Constitution, these social evils thrive. Recently, Parliament’s Estimates Committee highlighted the disastrous exhaustion of India’s forests over the last four decades. It stated that India is losing its forests at the rate of 3.7 million acres a year. The actual loss of forests is likely to be about eight times more than this.

A three-year study by the United Nations using satellites and aerial photography studied the environment in eighty-eight countries. It reported that that the environment was ‘critical’ in many of these countries.

Growing population is one of the strongest factors changing the future of human society. In 1800, the population was merely one billion. Another billion was added to it by 1900. By the twentieth century the population increased by another 3.7 billion. The present world population is estimated at 5.7 billion. Every four days the world population increases by one million.

As incomes rise and education spreads, the rate of population will decrease. This will improve health as well. Thus development is the best way to check population. But development may not be possible if the increase in numbers continues.

The rich get richer, and the poor produce children, which is the cause of their poverty. Having more children does not mean more people to work. On the contrary, it adds to unemployed persons.

People should be encouraged to go for voluntary family planning. At present, the population of India is estimated to be 920 million—more than the entire populations of Africa and South America put together. If this is not checked, the poor will die of starvation.

The situation now is alarming; it is not only about the survival of the people but of the planet. The environmental problem may not kill us, but it is our authorisation for a safe and healthy future. This is the “Era of Responsibility” that we need to fulfil for our coming generations. We need to understand the natural balance of the world rather than a separate collection of parts. Industry has a most important role to play in this age. Chairman of Du Pont, Mr Edgar S. Woolard, the company’s Chief Environmental Officer, said that as leading manufacturers, it’was required of them that they excel in environmental performance. The world would be a better place if all businessmen thought like him.

Margaret Thatcher, too, expressed her concern saying that no generation has a freehold on this earth. We live a life like tenants who have a full repairing rental contact. According to Mr Lester Brown, we have not inherited this earth from our predecessors but we are using the property of our future generations.

The Ailing Planet: The Green Movements Role Summary Questions and Answers

Question 1.
What awareness according to Nani Palkhivala is growing worldwide? Why?
Answer:
The movement, which has gripped the imagination of the entire human race, is the worldwide consciousness that the earth itself is a living organism of which we are parts. It has its own metabolic needs and vital processes that need attention because the earth’s vital signs reveal its declining health.

Question 2.
What is propagated by the concept of sustainable expansion?
Answer:
The World Commission on Environment and Development popularized the concept of sustainable development in 1987. It stressed the idea of development that meets the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs, i.e., without stripping the natural world of resources future generations would need.

Question 3.
What is the global concern raised by Mr Lester R. Brown that threatens the very existence of man?
Answer:
Mr Lester R. Brown has noted the earth’s principal biological systems as fisheries, forests, grasslands, and croplands — the foundation of the global economic system. They provide us with our food and virtually all the raw materials for industries. However, human claims are exhausting these resources leading to the collapse and disappearance of fisheries and grasslands.

Question 4.
What are the reasons that are leading to depletion of our natural resources?
Answer:
In a protein-conscious and protein-hungry world, over-fishing is common. In poor countries, local forests are being destroyed in order to procure firewood for cooking. As a consequence, in some places, firewood has ‘ become so expensive that fuel costs more than the food.

Question 5.
What steps has the Indian government taken to ensure the protection of the environment? What is the impact?
Answer:
The Indian government through Article 48A of the Constitution of India provides that the State shall try to protect and improve the environment and safeguard the forests and wildlife of the country. But the law has not had the due impact as laws are neither valued nor enforced in India.

Question 6.
The population in the world is growing at an alarming rate. Comment.
Answer:
The growing world population is deforming the future of human society. Human population reached its first billion around the year 1800. By the year 1900, a second billion was added, and another 3.7 billion in the twentieth century. Presently, the world population is estimated at 5.7 billion. Every day the world population increases by one million.

Question 7.
Why is the growing population detrimental to the world’s progress?
Answer:
Development will not be possible if the present increase in numbers continues. The rich get richer and the poor produce more children, hampering their economic growth. More children do not mean more workers, merely more people without work. Excessive population perpetuates poverty. People would die of hunger unless population growth is controlled.

Question 8.
Why is our age the ‘Era of Responsibility’?
Answer:
A growing anxiety about the survival of our planet has surfaced for the first time in human history. The emerging new world vision—a holistic view of the source of our survival—has steered in the Era of Responsibility; an ecological view of the world as a complete whole and not a disconnected collection of parts.