SIKKIM MANIPAL UNIVERSITY-DE Vernacular Programs Assignment format

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1. A Deal in Ostriches is full of comic situation with a twist in the tail Answer- For greed all nature is too little. A line well said by writer Senacas. Greed is like a disease and often the root cause of evils in the society. People sometimes can go to any extent to pursue their greed. This forms the basis of the story- A Deal in Ostriches. In this story you will be introduced to the humorous aspect of Wells art. Wells was a well known social science fiction writer and often made comment on human traits and society through his work. This story too makes gentle fun of a common human trait, greed. It presents the same through situations and characters that you can relate to. This story is a cautionary tale of simple human greed. A ship was sailing from India to the West Indies and had many important ports on her way. "Talking of the prices of birds, I've seen an ostrich that cost three hundred pounds," said the Taxidermist, recalling his youth of travel. "Three hundred pounds!" He looked at me over his spectacles. "I've seen another that was refused at four." "No," he said, "it wasn't any fancy points. They were just plain ostriches. A little off colour, too-- owing to dietary. And there wasn't any particular restriction of the demand either. You'd have thought five ostriches would have ruled cheap on an East Indiaman. But the point was, one of them had swallowed a diamond. "The chap it got it off was Sir Mohini Padishah, a tremendous swell, a Piccadilly swell you might say up to the neck of him, and then an ugly black head and a whopping turban, with this diamond in it. The blessed bird pecked suddenly and had it, and when the chap made a fuss it realised it had done wrong, I suppose, and went and mixed itself with the others to preserve its incog. It all happened in a minute. I was among the first to arrive, and there was this heathen going over his gods, and two sailors and the man who had charge of the birds laughing fit to split. It was a rummy way of losing a jewel, come to think of it. The man in charge hadn't been about just at the moment, so that he didn't know which bird it was. Clean lost, you see. I didn't feel half sorry, to tell you the truth. The beggar had been swaggering over his blessed diamond ever since he came aboard.

2. How did Joe and Delia meet? What all did they do to keep art flourishing? Answer- Joe and Delia met in an atelier where a number of art and music students had gathered to discuss chiaroscuro, Wagner, music, Rembrandt's works, pictures, Waldteufel, wall paper, Chopin and Oolong.Joe and Delia became enamoured one of the other, or each of the other, as you please, and in a short time were married--for (see above), when one loves one's Art no service seems too hard. Mr. and Mrs. Larrabee began housekeeping in a flat. It was a lonesome flat--something like the A sharp way down at the left-hand end of the keyboard. And they were happy; for they had their Art, and they had each other. And my advice to the rich young man would be--sell all thou hast,and give it to the poor--janitor for the privilege of living in a flat with your Art and your Delia.Flat-dwellers shall indorse my dictum that theirs is the only true happiness. If a home is happy it cannot fit too close--let the dresser collapse and become a billiard table; let the mantel turn to a rowing machine, the escritoire to a spare bedchamber, the washstand to an upright piano; let the four walls come together, if they will, so you and your Delia are between. But if home be the other kind, let it be wide and long--enter you at the Golden Gate, hang your hat on Hatteras, your cape on Cape Horn and go out by the Labrador.Joe was painting in the class of the great Magister--you know his fame. His fees are high; his lessons are light--his high-lights have brought him renown. Delia was studying under Rosenstock--you know his repute as a disturber of the piano keys.

3. What are the fruits of friendship as detailed by Bacon in his essay of this title? Answer- A principal fruit of friendship, is the ease and discharge of the fulness and swellings of the heart, which passions of all kinds do cause and induce. We know diseases of stoppings, and suffocations, are the most dangerous in the body; and it is not much otherwise in the mind; you may take sarza to open the liver, steel to open the spleen, flowers of sulphur for the lungs, castoreum for the brain; but no receipt openeth the heart, but a true friend; to whom you may impart griefs, joys, fears, hopes, suspicions, counsels, and whatsoever lieth upon the heart to oppress it, in a kind of civil shrift or confession. one thing is most admirable (wherewith I will conclude this first fruit of friendship), which is, that this communicating of a mans self to his friend, works two contrary effects; for it redoubleth joys, and cutteth griefs in halves. For there is no man, that imparteth his joys to his friend, but he joyeth the more; and no man that imparteth his griefs to his friend, but he grieveth the less. So that it is in truth, of operation upon a mans mind, of like virtue as the alchemists use to attribute to their stone, for mans body; that it worketh all contrary effects, but still to the good and benefit of nature. But yet without praying in aid of alchemists, there is a manifest image of this, in the ordinary course of nature. For in bodies, union strengtheneth and cherisheth any natural action; and on the other side, weakeneth and dulleth any violent impression: and even so it is of minds.The second fruit of friendship, is healthful and sovereign for the understanding, as the first is for the affections. For friendship maketh indeed a fair day in the affections, from storm and tempests; but it maketh daylight in the understanding, out of darkness, and confusion of thoughts. Neither is this to be understood only of faithful counsel, which a man receiveth from his friend; but before you come to that, certain it is, that whosoever hath his mind fraught with many thoughts, his wits and understanding do clarify and break up, in the communicating and discoursing with another; he tosseth his thoughts more easily; he marshalleth them more orderly, he seeth how they look when they are turned into words: finally, he waxeth wiser than himself; and that more by an hours discourse, than by a days meditation.

4. What are the basic requirements of Satyagraha according to Gandhiji? Discuss in detail. Answer- The efficacy of satyagraha depends upon the tenacity to resist evil which, while it abjures force, develops in the satyagrahi the faculty to face all risks cheerfully. Thus, the emphasis is transferred from aggression by force to resistance by tenacity. It is only when these requirements are met that nonviolent satyagraha becomes a mighty weapon of resistance both in the struggle for freedom as well as in self-realisation. The results are reached by slow degrees, it is true, but the resultant bitterness is short-lived.Satyagraha in some form or the other was adopted by various sets of people at different times in history. But it was left to Gandhi to perfect the technique by which mass resistance could succeed in achieving enduring results without resorting to force and without leaving a legacy of bitterness behind. The technique acquires great importance in the modern world when instruments of coercion and destruction are concentrated in the hands of a few rulers in every country. Those who serve the cause of freedom or collective welfare have no other efficacious weapon left, except satyagraha. We see this illustrated in the satyagraha offered by the Negroes in U.S.A.Satyagraha as a social force is not a negative creed of the pacifists, a pious wish, a faith devoid of passion. It is an activity resulting from an effective will to vindicate the supremacy of the Moral Order. In the hour of danger, it demands the highest form of heroism as well as self-control. Satyagraha, as Gandhi often said, is a weapon of the strong, not a cover for the cowardice of the weak. As he himself recognised, in the practical affairs of men there may be occasions when nonviolence may have to be tempered with the defensive use of violence.Nonviolence is absolute in principle; but on occasions, as the one which presented itself to Arjuna in the Bhagavad-Gita, it has to be a mental attitude, not an absolute refusal to resist violence by violent methods.The power of satyagraha lies in the satyagrahis firm determination to uphold his truth at the cost of his life in a spirit of humility. This power only comes to a satyagrahi when he acquires the faith that the cause he fights for is God-given. This aspect of satyagraha was thus expressed by Gandhi: But who am I? I have no strength save what God gives me. I have no authority over my countrymen save the purely moral. If he holds me to be a sure instrument for the spread of nonviolence in place of the awful violence now ruling the earth, He will give me the strength and show me the way. My greatest weapon is mute prayer.

5. Read the passage and answer the following questions: You are mad and gone the wrong way. You take falsehood for truth and ugliness for beauty. You would marvel if suddenly apple and orange trees should bear frogs and lizards instead of fruit, and if roses should begin to breathe the odour of a sweating horse. So do I marvel at you, who have bartered heaven for earth. I dont want to understand you. Questions: i. Who is the speaker of these lines? ii. Who is addressed in these lines? iii. What kind of speech is this? iv. How much time of the bet has elapsed when these lines occur?

Answers:1. The lawyer is the speaker of these lines.2. These lines are addressed to the banker.3. This is a typical philosophic speech.4. These lines are written on the last night of the stipulated confinement.

6. Read the passage and answer the following questions: She danced with intoxication, with passion, made drank by pleasure, forgetting all, in the triumph of her beauty, in the glory of success, in a sort of cloud of happiness composed of all this homage, of all this admiration, of all these awakened desires and of that sense of complete victory which is so sweet to womans heart. Questions: 1. Who is she in these lines? 2. Why is she forgetting all? 3. Why is all this happening? 4. What is sweetest to a womans heart, according to Maupassant?

Answers:1. Mathilde is she in these lines.2. She is maddened by the pleasure of getting so much attention, so she is forgetting all.3. All this is happening in a ministerial ball.4. Complete victory over a large crowd and that too of high gentry is perhaps sweetest to awoman.

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