Yashwant Handibag

With the Photographer by Stephen Leacock About the Author:       Stephen Leacock was born in Britain but brought up in Canada. He taught for some years at McGill University in Montreal. He is best known as a humorist. His many volumes of humourous essays and stories include Literary Lapses, Nonsense Novels and Friendship Fiction. Summary of the Essay:       With the Photographer is an interesting account of Leacock’s meeting with a photographer. He remembers his experience of getting a photograph taken with an observant eye for detail. He records his sharp reactions to having his face reshaped and retouched by the skilled photographer. Leacock shows a special kind of humour in this essay.       The writer wants to take his photograph. He goes to the photographer and tells him that he wants to take his photograph. The photographer is busy and asks him to wait. The photographer is a thin man with green eyes like a scientist. The writer waits for an hour. He reads some magazines to pass t

The Three Questions by Leo Tolstoy About the Author:       Leo Tolstoy was a great Russian thinker and writer. He wrote many novels, short stories and an autobiography called My Confession containing his religious experiences. War and Peace and Anna Karenina are his famous works. His literary works are union of great moral conviction and realistic details. He rejected all outward forms and dogmas of religion but returned his belief in God and love of men. Summary of the essay:       The central idea of the story is what is truly important at any given time is what we are doing at that moment, the reason why we are doing it, how it will help someone else at that moment, and the most important time is always now.       Once there was a king in a certain Kingdom. He wants to find out the answers for three questions. His questions are; what is the most important time to start anything. The second question is; who are the most important people. The third question is; what is the most import

The Homecoming by Rabindranath Tagore About the Author:       Rabindranath Tagore was a twentieth century Bengali freedom fighter, educationist, playwright and a poet. He went England for his education but came back to India. He started an experimental school at Santiniketan. He joined Indian National Movement and he was a great friend of Mahatma Gandhi. He was awarded Nobel Prize for literature for his famous work, ‘Gitanjali’. He was awarded the title, ‘Sir’ by the British Government which he later returned in protest against the British policies in India. He translated much of his poetry and received popularity for his work. His famous collections of poetry are Manasi, Sonar Tari and Gitanjali. He also wrote plays and short stories namely Gora and Ghare-Baire. Summary of the Essay:       The present story is about a teenager boy named Phatik who feels homesick after he leaves his home for education. It is about the psychology of the teenagers. The writer through the character of Pha

The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde About the Author:       Oscar Wilde is an Irish writer. He was born in Dublin. He was a very successful academician. He graduated from Oxford University. He was influenced by the ideas of aestheticism. He was also influenced by the ideas of John Ruskin. He published The Happy Prince and Other Tales in 1888 which is a collection of fairy tales and poems. Summary of the Essay:       The Happy Prince is a story of a statue and a bird by the name Swallow. The statue of the Happy Prince is erected on a very high place in the city. The statue is covered with leaves made of gold. There are two bright sapphires in his eyes and there is a large red ruby in his sword hilt. Everybody in the city admires the statue and considers it as very beautiful, attractive and happy. The young children, men and women in the city like the statue very much and they want to be like the statue.       One night there comes a bird in the city. The name of the bird is a Swallow. The

The Eyes are Not Here by Ruskin Bond About the Author:       Ruskin Bond was born in Himachal Pradesh but grew up in Gujarat, Dehradun and Shimla. He has written more than hundred short stories, essays, novels and more than thirty books for children. He has also published the three collections of short stories; The Night Train at Deoli, Time Stops at Shamli and Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra . He was awarded the Sahitya Akademi award for English writing in India in 1992. He also published a collection of non fiction writing under the title Rain in the Mountain . Summary of the Essay:       The Eyes are Not Here is a short story by Ruskin bond. It was originally published in contemporary Indian English stories. It is a deeply touching story about two co-passengers in a train who are both blind and do not realise that the other is. The irony is in the fact that the narrator of the story learns that his co-passenger was blind only after she had got off the train. There is pathos and irony

The Avenger by Anton Chekov About the Author:       Anton Chekhov was a Russian short story writer and playwright. He wrote about human loneliness and frustration. He shows a sense of sympathy towards his characters and tries his best to present life as it is. His characters constantly face inner turmoils. He has written famous stories like The Bet, The Duel, The Lady with the Dog, The Black Monk, etc. Summary of the Essay:       The Bet is a story that shows the deep agony of a man who is faced with the conflict in life between what is important in terms of self improvement and monetary gain. Chekov uses the situation to present the idea that imprisonment does not necessarily deprive a person of their freedom. Chekov conveys the importance of life over material possessions.       The Bet is a story of two characters. They are the banker and the lawyer. The flashback technique is used in the beginning where the banker remembers how fifteen years before he had given a party. Many people

To the Virgins, To Make Much of Time by Robert Herrick About the poet: Robert Herrick is a 17 th century English lyric poet. He is best known for his book of poems Hesperides. He has written more than 2500 poems during his lifetime. Herrick loved the richness and variety of human life. He wrote on pastoral themes dealing with life in the English countryside and village customs. His poems are easier to understand than the poems of most of his contemporaries. Summary of the Poem: The present poem is taken from Hesperides. It belongs to a group of poems which are called the ‘carpe diem’ poems. These poems focus on the shortness of human life and appeal us to do the things immediately. These poems encourage people to make the best use of time available to them and the opportunities that come their way. In this poem the poet or the speaker is speaking to maidens but his message is universal and it is for all the people. The poem is short having sixteen lines divided into four stanz

The Avenger by Anton Chekov About the Author:      Anton Chekov wrote many short stories. His stories are about ordinary Russian people who face extraordinary situations in their life. Chekov was   a doctor by profession but writing was his hobby. So he said “Medicine is my lawful wife and literature is my mistress”. His famous short stories are The Black Monk, Ward Number Six, The Murder, etc. Summary of the Essay: The present story deals with the extreme mental suffering experience by a husband whose wife has been unfaithful to him. The story presents the troubling thoughts of revenge mixed with moments of doubt in the mind of the central character in the story, Fedor Sigaev. There is suspense in the story which keeps the readers captivated till the end. Fedor Sigaev decides to take revenge when he finds out that his wife has been unfaithful to him. He wants to buy a revolver. He visits the shop of firearms. His face expresses anger, sorrow and irrevocable decision. At first, F

On Not Answering the Telephone by William Plomer About the Author: William Plomer was a British novelist, poet and a literary editor. He was born in South Africa, completed his education in England and lived in Japan for a short while. So, he described himself as Anglo-African-Asian. He expressed his anger against racial discrimination in his collection of short stories titled ‘I Speak of Africa’. Plomer was known for his deep sense of humour which he showed both in his writings and in his talks on the radio. Summary of the Essay:           The present essay is a talk given by William Plomer on BBC. In the talk, he discusses the discovery of the telephone in a comic way. He thinks that sometimes gadgets like telephone are more of a burden than a boon. He makes some real observations about mechanical devices and their users. The writer shares his experience with mechanical devices like the telephone, the typewriter and the car. The writer does not use a telephone because he does not lik

How to Avoid an Argument by Sam Horn About the Author: Sam Horn is an American author and an expert in Communication Skills. She has trained many businessmen and officers on how to communicate effectively. She is known for bringing out new techniques in the field of Communication Skills. She has written a book entitled ‘Tongue Fu: How to Deflect, Disarm and Diffuse any Verbal Conflict’. Sam Horn shows us how to control our emotions and avoid arguments. Summary of the Essay:      In the present essay, the writer speaks about some techniques of avoiding arguments. Her advice helps us put an end to ugly situations with children, spouses, colleagues and others. The writer uses simple everyday situations to illustrate her point. According to her effective communication is simply a matter of the right choice of words.      At the beginning of the essay the writer gives her own example. She, with her son, goes to an ice cream parlour to buy some ice-cream. The place is very crowded and the gi

Where the Mind is without Fear by Rabindranath Tagore About the Author:  Rabindranath Tagore contributed greatly to giving a modern India a place on the world literary scene. He was a multi-faceted personality. He was a poet, a dramatist, a short story writer and a novelist. He was also a philosopher and a nation builder. He wrote primary in Bengali but translated his own works into English. His important translated volumes of poetry are Gitanjali and The Gardener. The songs of Gitanjali are mainly devotional poems in the Indian tradition. His Crescent Moon is a collection intended primary for children but it has a powerful appeal also for adults. The Gardener is mainly love poetry. Tagore's translations of his Bengali poems are in free verse. Tagore draws most of his imagery from Indian philosophy and spiritualism. Summary of the Poem:            Rabindranath Tagore's poem If is a part of a larger poem The Heaven of Freedom which is one of his most anthologized poems. It is an

The Toys by Coventry Patmore  About the Poet:   Coventry Patmore worked as an assistant in the printed book department of the British Museum. He also worked as a librarian in the Museum. The beauty and tenderness of family life and the simple joys and sorrows of domestic situations are the subjects of his poetry.  Summary of the Poem:       The present poem is from The Unknown Eros. It was inspired by a moment of anger caused by one of his sons. It shows our true relation to God and strengthens our faith in the mercy and forgiveness of God. The poem describes a sensitive parent's reaction to the harsh way in which he had punished a disobedient son. The father strikes his son for having disobeyed for the seventh time. The father dismisses him from his sight. He uses very harsh language and does not shower love on his son which he usually does. The father makes an observation that he is not as patient as the child's mother who is now dead. He does not have that much patience as h