Activities

If Rudyard Kipling About the Author and Text        Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) was an English poet and novelist who is remembered for his children's books, including the ever popular The Jungle Book and Kim , and for his many stories and poems written about the British in India during the Raj. He was a strong advocate of the British Empire. Kipling was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907, and was offered a knighthood several times, though he declined the honour.        The following poem is written from the perspective of a father offering advice to his son. In it, he expounds the virtues of stoicism and behaving in a manner that befits a gentleman. This simple inspirational poem is often quoted and anthologised. In 1995, it was named 'Britain's favourite poem' in a BBC survey.     If If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself wh...

The Felling of the Banyan Tree Dilip Chitre About the Author and Text Dilip Chitre (1938-2009) was a teacher, painter, film-maker and magazine columnist. A winner of the Sahitya Akademi Award, Chitre lived and taught in Ethiopia and the USA. He was a bilingual writer, writing mostly in Marathi. His major translations from Marathi into English include the 1968 collection An Anthology of Marathi Poetry (1945-1965) and Says Tuka (1991). Travelling in a Cage (1980) was his first and only collection of English poetry. Exile, alienation, self-disintegration and death are major themes in Chitre's poetry. His poems reflect a cosmopolitan culture and urban sensibility, and use oblique expressions and ironic tones to explore the vicissitudes of urban life. This poem is about the cutting down of an ancient banyan tree that stood in the yard of the poet's ancestral house. The cutting down of the banyan seems to signify the cutting down of roots and the movement to a different a...

Good Manners J. C. Hill About the Author and Text The essay "Good Manners' is adapted from the book An Introduction to Good Citizenship (1941) by J.C. Hill. If our attitudes and behaviour must change for the better as we grow up, we must be able to have a deeper understanding of human relationships and how they work. If one is open and willing to change one's perspective then we become better individuals. Values that make us sensitive to other's needs results in good manners. Hill discusses good manners in action, good manners in speech, and in general behaviour. Good Manners J. C. Hill There was once a young man who was strong and healthy and enjoyed his work. In every way he felt on top of life, and had no sympathy for the uninteresting folk who seemed to form such a large proportion of the population. One day he got an attack of influenza. He had had it before and paid little attention to it, but this time he developed pneumonia and was dangerously i...

How Much Land Does a Man Need? I An elder sister came to visit her younger sister in the country. The elder was married to a tradesman in town, the younger to a peasant in the village. As the sisters sat over their tea talking, the elder began to boast of the advantages of town life: saying how comfortably they lived there, how well they dressed, what fine clothes her children wore, what good things they ate and drank, and how she went to the theatre, promenades, and entertainments. The younger sister was piqued, and in turn disparaged the life of a tradesman, and stood up for that of a peasant. "I would not change my way of life for yours," said she. "We may live roughly, but at least we are free from anxiety. You live in better style than we do, but though you often earn more than you need, you are very likely to lose all you have. You know the proverb, 'Loss and gain are brothers twain.' It often happens that pe...

The Gold Frame - R.K. Laxman About the Author and Text The legendary cartoonist R.K. Laxman (1921-2015) started off as a political cartoonist for the Free Press Journal before joining The Times of India, with which he was associated for over fifty years. His cartoon strip'You Said It, which features his best known creation The Common Man', has attained cult status. His elder brother, R.K. Narayan, was a famous Indian English novelist. Laxman was also a writer of repute with short stories, travelogues and a novel to his credit. He received a number of awards for his work-the B.D. Goenka Award by the Indian Express; the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts; the Padma Bhushan; and the Padma Vibhusan. This story, like most other works by Laxman, treats the themes of false Prestige and society with simplicity and humour. The author describes the plight of a frame-maker, Datta, who splashes paint on the picture of an old and ...