2018-19

ISBN 81-7450-524-5
First Edition
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 Foreword
THE National Curriculum Framework (NCF), 2005, recommends
that children's life at school must be linked to their life outside the
school. This principle marks a departure from the legacy of bookish
learning which continues to shape our system and causes a gap
between the school, home and community. The syllabi and
textbooks developed on the basis of NCF signify an attempt to
implement this basic idea. They also attempt to discourage rote
learning and the maintenance of sharp boundaries between
different subject areas. We hope these measures will take us
significantly further in the direction of a child-centred system of
education outlined in the National Policy of Education (1986).
The success of this effort depends on the steps that school
principals and teachers will take to encourage children to reflect on
their own learning and to pursue imaginative activities and
questions. We must recognise that, given space, time and freedom,
children generate new knowledge by engaging with the information
passed on to them by adults. Treating the prescribed textbook as the
sole basis of examination is one of the key reasons why other
resources and sites of learning are ignored. Inculcating creativity and
initiative is possible if we perceive and treat children as participants
in learning, not as receivers of a fixed body of knowledge.
These aims imply considerable change in school routines and
mode of functioning. Flexibility in the daily time-table is as
necessary as rigour in implementing the annual calendar so that
the required number of teaching days are actually devoted to
teaching. The methods used for teaching and evaluation will also
determine how effective this textbook proves for making
children’s life at school a happy experience, rather than a source
of stress or boredom. Syllabus designers have tried to address the
problem of curricular burden by restructuring and reorienting
knowledge at different stages with greater consideration for child
psychology and the time available for teaching. The textbook
attempts to enhance this endeavour by giving higher priority and
space to opportunities for contemplation and wondering,
discussion in small groups, and activities requiring hands-on
experience.

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 iv
The National Council of Educational Research and Training
(NCERT) appreciates the hard work done by the textbook
development committee responsible for this book. We wish to
thank the Chairperson of the advisory group in languages,
Professor Namwar Singh and the Chief Advisor for this book,
Professor R. Amritavalli for guiding the work of this committee.
Several teachers contributed to the development of this textbook;
we are grateful to their principals for making this possible. We
are indebted to the institutions and organisations which have
generously permitted us to draw upon their resources, materials
and personnel. We are especially grateful to the members of the
National Monitoring Committee, appointed by the Department of
Secondary and Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource
Development under the Chairpersonship of Professor Mrinal Miri
and Professor G.P. Deshpande for their valuable time and
contribution. As an organisation committed to systemic reform
and continuous improvement in the quality of its products,
NCERT welcomes comments and suggestions which will enable
us to undertake further revision and refinements.

Director
New Delhi National Council of Educational
20 December 2005 Research and Training

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 About the Book
THIS textbook for Class XI is based on the English syllabus on the
lines suggested by the National Curriculum Framework, 2005.
It aims to help learners develop proficiency in English by
using language as an instrument for abstract thought and
knowledge acquisition.
In the Reading Skills section, the texts have been chosen to
mirror the kind of serious reading in real life that a school-leaver
should be capable of. The prose pieces are drawn from biographies,
travelogues, science fiction, art and contemporary expository prose
by writers from different parts of the world. Samples from
journalistic writing have also been included. The play, placed
centrally in the textbook, is on a theme that learners will particularly
identify with and is in a lighter vein. The poems relate to
universal sentiments and appeal to contemporary sensibilities.
Learners at this stage bring along with them a rich resource of
world-view, knowledge and cognitive strategies. Teachers should
encourage them to make educated guesses at what they read and
help them initially to make sense of the language of the text and
subsequently become autonomous readers. The Notes after every
Unit help the teacher and learners with strategies for dealing with
the particular piece.
The activities suggested draw upon the learners’ multilingual
experiences and capacities. Comprehension is addressed at two
levels: one of the text itself and the other of how the text relates
to the learners’ experience. The vocabulary exercises will sensitise
learners to make informed choices of words, while the points of
grammar highlighted will help them notice the use of forms. The
‘Things to Do’ section at the end of every unit invites learners to
look for other sources of information that will help them deal with
learning tasks across the curriculum.
The section on Writing Skills prepares them for the kind of
independent writing that a school-leaver will need to engage in for
academic as well as real-life purposes. Help has been provided in a
step-by-step manner to lead the learners on to make notes,
summarise, draft letters and write short essays, paying attention to
the form, content and the process of writing.

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2018-
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 Textbook Development
Committee
CHAIRPERSON, ADVISORY GROUP FOR TEXTBOOKS IN LANGUAGES
Professor Namwar Singh, formerly Chairman, School of Languages,
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

CHIEF ADVISOR
R. Amritavalli, Professor, English and Foreign Languages University
(EFLU), Hyderabad

CHIEF COORDINATOR
Ram Janma Sharma, Former Professor and Head, Department of
Education in Languages, NCERT, New Delhi

MEMBERS
Indu Khetarpal, Principal, Salwan Public School, Gurgaon
Malathy Krishnan, Reader, EFLU, Hyderabad
Nasiruddin Khan, Reader (Retd.), NCERT, New Delhi
Rashmi Mishra, PGT (English), Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya,
P.O. Kalamati, Sambalpur

MEMBER – COORDINATOR
Meenakshi Khar, Assistant Professor of English, Department of
Education in Languages, NCERT, New Delhi

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 Acknowledgements
THE National Council of Educational Research and Training is
grateful to Professor M.L. Tickoo, formerly of the Central Institute
of English and Foreign Languages, Hyderabad, and the Regional
Language Centre, Singapore; Geetha Kumar, PGT, The Mothers’
International School; and Vandana Singh, Consultant Editor for
going through the manuscript and making valuable suggestions.
For permission to reproduce copyright material in this book
NCERT would like to thank the following: Pergamon Press (Aust)
for ‘A Photograph’ by Shirley Toulson and ‘Father to Son’ by
Elizabeth Jennings; Oxford University Press for ‘We’re Not Afraid
to Die... if We Can Be Together’ by Gordon Cook and Alan East;
National Geographic Society for ‘Discovering Tut: the Saga
Continues’ by
A.R. Williams and ‘Green Sahara’ by Joel Achenbach; Oxford
University Press for ‘The Laburnum Top’ by Ted Hughes and
‘Childhood’ by Markus Natten; The India International Society for
‘Landscape of the Soul’ by Nathalie Trouveroy; New York
University Press for ‘The Voice of the Rain’ by Walt Whitman;
Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan for ‘The Ailing Planet’ by Nani Palkhivala;
The Gale Group Inc. for ‘The Browning Version’ by Terence
Rattigan; Publishers Witness Books for ‘The Adventure’ by Jayant
Narlikar; John Murray for ‘Silk Road’ by Nick Middleton; Editor-
in-Chief, The Hindu for ‘A New Deal for Old Cities’ by
G.Ananthakrishnan; HT Media Ltd for ‘Getting Inside Outsider
Art’ by Brinda Suri.
The National Council of Educational Research and Training,
New Delhi, acknowledges the services of Sunanda Khanna,
Copy Editor; Surender K. Vats, Proof Reader; Mohammad Harun
and Uttam Kumar, DTP Operators; and Parash Ram Kaushik,
Incharge, Computer Station. The efforts of the Publication
Department, NCERT are also highly appreciated.

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 Contents
FOREWORD iii
ABOUT THE BOOK v

READING SKILLS 1– 86

1. The Portrait of a Lady 3

KHUSHWANT SINGH

A Photograph 11
SHIRLEY TOULSON

2. We’re Not Afraid to Die...

if We Can All Be Together 13
GORDON COOK and ALAN EAST

3. Discovering Tut: the

Saga Continues 22
A.R. WILLIAMS

The Laburnum Top 31

TED HUGHES

4. Landscape of the Soul 34

NATHALIE TROUVEROY

The Voice of the Rain 41

WALT WHITMAN

5. The Ailing Planet: the

Green Movement’s Role 43
NANI PALKHIVALA

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 x

6. The Browning Version 50

TERENCE RATTIGAN

Childhood 58
MARKUS NATTEN

7. The Adventure 60
JAYANT NARLIKAR

8. Silk Road 74
NICK MIDDLETON

Father to Son 85
ELIZABETH JENNINGS

WRITING SKILLS 87– 118

1. Note-making 89

2. Summarising 94

3. Sub-titling 99

4. Essay-writing 102

5. Letter-writing 107

6. Creative Writing 116

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The Portrait of a Lady
A Photograph
“We’re Not Afraid to Die ... if
We Can All Be Together”
Discovering Tut: the Saga Continues
The Laburnum Top
Landscape of the Soul
The Voice of the Rain
The Ailing Planet: the Green
Movement’s Role
The Browning Version
Childhood
The Adventure
Silk Road
Father to Son

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 2 HORNBILL

Effective readinq iz receivinq from

otherz their ideaz and fee7inqz.

Effeztive reading involve3

 under3tanding the text
 talhing a6out the text
 thinhing a6out language
 orhing ith ord3
 notizing form and pattern3.

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THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY 3

. v3e gxxi 3  ç

33 xi3
Notice these expressions in the text.
Infer their meaning from the context.

 the thought was almost revolting  a veritable bedlam of chirrupings

 an expanse of pure white serenity  frivolous rebukes
 a turning-point  the sagging skins of the dilapidated
 accepted her seclusion with drum
resignation

MY grandmother, like everybody’s grandmother, was an old

woman. She had been old and wrinkled for the twenty years
that I had known her. People said that she had once been
young and pretty and had even had a husband, but that was
hard to believe. My grandfather’s portrait hung above the
mantelpiece in the drawing room. He wore a big turban and
loose-fitting clothes. His long, white beard covered the best
part of his chest and he looked at least a hundred years old.
He did not look the sort of person who would have a wife or
children. He looked as if he could only have lots and lots of
grandchildren. As for my grandmother being young and pretty,
the thought was almost revolting. She often told us of the
games she used to play as a child. That seemed quite absurd
and undignified on her part and we treated it like the fables
of the Prophets she used to tell us.
She had always been short and fat and slightly bent. Her
face was a criss-cross of wrinkles running from everywhere to
everywhere. No, we were certain she had always been as we had

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 4 HORNBILL

known her. Old, so terribly old that she could not have grown
older, and had stayed at the same age for twenty years. She
could never have been pretty; but she was always beautiful.
She hobbled about the house in spotless white with one hand
resting on her waist to balance her stoop and the other telling
the beads of her rosary. Her silver locks were scattered untidily
over her pale, puckered face, and her lips constantly moved in
inaudible prayer. Yes, she was beautiful. She was like the winter
landscape in the mountains, an expanse of pure white serenity
breathing peace and contentment.
My grandmother and I were good friends. My parents left me
with her when they went to live in the city and we were
constantly together. She used to wake me up in the morning
and get me ready for school. She said her morning prayer in a
monotonous sing-song while she bathed and dressed me in the
hope that I would listen and get to know it by heart; I listened
because I loved her voice but never bothered to learn it. Then
she would fetch my wooden slate which she had already
washed and plastered with yellow chalk, a tiny earthen ink-pot
and a red pen, tie them all in a bundle and hand it to me. After
a breakfast of a thick, stale chapatti with a little butter and
sugar spread on it, we went to school. She carried several stale
chapattis with her for the village dogs.
My grandmother always went to school with me because
the school was attached to the temple. The priest taught us
the alphabet and the morning prayer. While the children sat in
rows on either side of the verandah singing the alphabet or the
prayer in a chorus, my grandmother sat inside reading the
scriptures. When we had both finished, we would walk back
together. This time the village dogs would meet us at the temple
door. They followed us to our home growling and fighting with
each other for the chapattis we threw to them.
When my parents were comfortably settled in the city, they
sent for us. That was a turning-point in our friendship. Although
we shared the same room, my grandmother no longer came to
school with me. I used to go to an English school in a motor
bus. There were no dogs in the streets and she took to feeding
sparrows in the courtyard of our city house.
As the years rolled by we saw less of each other. For some
time she continued to wake me up and get me ready for
school. When I came back she would ask me what the
teacher had

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THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY 5

taught me. I would tell her English words and little things of
western science and learning, the law of gravity, Archimedes’
Principle, the world being round, etc. This made her unhappy.
She could not help me with my lessons. She did not believe in
the things they taught at the English school and was distressed
that there was no teaching about God and the scriptures. One
day I announced that we were being given music lessons. She
was very disturbed. To her music had lewd associations. It was
the monopoly of harlots and beggars and not meant for
gentlefolk. She said nothing but her silence meant disapproval.
She rarely talked to me after that.
When I went up to University, I was given a room of my own.
The common link of friendship was snapped. My grandmother
accepted her seclusion with resignation. She rarely left her
spinning-wheel to talk to anyone. From sunrise to sunset she
sat by her wheel spinning and reciting prayers. Only in the
afternoon she relaxed for a while to feed the sparrows. While
she sat in the verandah breaking the bread into little bits,
hundreds of little birds collected round her creating a veritable
bedlam of chirrupings. Some came and perched on her legs,
others on her shoulders. Some even sat on her head. She smiled
but never shooed them away. It used to be the happiest half-
hour of the day for her.
When I decided to go abroad for further studies, I was sure
my grandmother would be upset. I would be away for five
years, and at her age one could never tell. But my
grandmother could. She was not even sentimental. She came
to leave me at the railway station but did not talk or show any
emotion. Her lips moved in prayer, her mind was lost in prayer.
Her fingers were busy telling the beads of her rosary. Silently
she kissed my forehead, and when I left I cherished the moist
imprint as perhaps the last sign of physical contact between us.
But that was not so. After five years I came back home and
was met by her at the station. She did not look a day older. She
still had no time for words, and while she clasped me in her
arms I could hear her reciting her prayers. Even on the first day
of my arrival, her happiest moments were with her sparrows
whom she fed longer and with frivolous rebukes.
In the evening a change came over her. She did not pray.
She collected the women of the neighbourhood, got an old drum
and started to sing. For several hours she thumped the sagging

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 6 HORNBILL

skins of the dilapidated drum and sang of the home-coming

of warriors. We had to persuade her to stop to avoid
overstraining. That was the first time since I had known her
that she did not pray.
The next morning she was taken ill. It was a mild fever and
the doctor told us that it would go. But my grandmother thought
differently. She told us that her end was near. She said that,
since only a few hours before the close of the last chapter of her
life she had omitted to pray, she was not going to waste any
more time talking to us.
We protested. But she ignored our protests. She lay
peacefully in bed praying and telling her beads. Even before we
could suspect, her lips stopped moving and the rosary fell from
her lifeless fingers. A peaceful pallor spread on her face and we
knew that she was dead.
We lifted her off the bed and, as is customary, laid her on
the ground and covered her with a red shroud. After a few hours
of mourning we left her alone to make arrangements for her
funeral. In the evening we went to her room with a crude
stretcher to take her to be cremated. The sun was setting and had
lit her room and verandah with a blaze of golden light. We
stopped half-way in the courtyard. All over the verandah and in
her room right up to where she lay dead and stiff wrapped in the
red shroud, thousands of sparrows sat scattered on the floor.
There was no chirruping. We felt sorry for the birds and my
mother fetched some bread for them. She broke it into little
crumbs, the way my grandmother used to, and threw it to them.
The sparrows took no notice of the bread. When we carried my
grandmother’s corpse off, they flew away quietly. Next morning
the sweeper swept the bread crumbs into the dustbin.

Understanding the text

Mention
1. The three phases of the author’s relationship with his grandmother
before he left the country to study abroad.
2. Three reasons why the author’s grandmother was disturbed when
he started going to the city school.

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THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY 7

3. Three ways in which the author’s grandmother spent her days

after he grew up.
4. The odd way in which the author’s grandmother behaved just
before she died.
5. The way in which the sparrows expressed their sorrow when
the author’s grandmother died.

Talking about the text

Talk to your partner about the following.
1. The author’s grandmother was a religious person. What are the
different ways in which we come to know this?
2. Describe the changing relationship between the author and his
grandmother. Did their feelings for each other change?
3. Would you agree that the author’s grandmother was a person strong
in character? If yes, give instances that show this.
4. Have you known someone like the author’s grandmother? Do you
feel the same sense of loss with regard to someone whom you have
loved and lost?

Thinking about language

1. Which language do you think the author and his grandmother used
while talking to each other?
2. Which language do you use to talk to elderly relatives in your family?
3. How would you say ‘a dilapidated drum’ in your language?
4. Can you think of a song or a poem in your language that talks of
homecoming?

Working with words

I. Notice the following uses of the word ‘tell’ in the text.
1. Her fingers were busy telling the beads of her rosary.
2. I would tell her English words and little things of Western science
and learning.
3. At her age one could never tell.
4. She told us that her end was near.

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 8 HORNBILL

Given below are four different senses of the word ‘tell’. Match
the meanings to the uses listed above.
1. make something known to someone in spoken or written words
2. count while reciting
3. be sure
4. give information to somebody

II. Notice the different senses of the word ‘take’.

1. to take to something: to begin to do something as a habit
2. to take ill: to suddenly become ill
Locate these phrases in the text and notice the way they are
used.
III. The word ‘hobble’ means to walk with difficulty because the legs
and feet are in bad condition.
Tick the words in the box below that also refer to a manner of walking.

haggle shuffle stride ride waddle

wriggle paddle swagger trudge slog

Noticing form
Notice the form of the verbs italicised in these sentences.
1. My grandmother was an old woman. She had been old and wrinkled
for the twenty years that I had known her. People said that she had
once been young and pretty and had even had a husband, but that
was hard to believe.
2. When we both had finished we would walk back together.
3. When I came back she would ask me what the teacher had
taught me.
4. It was the first time since I had known her that she did not pray.
5. The sun was setting and had lit her room and verandah with a
golden light.
These are examples of the past perfect forms of verbs. When we recount
things in the distant past we use this form.

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THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY 9

Things to do
Talk with your family members about elderly people who you have
been intimately connected with and who are not there with you now.
Write a short description of someone you liked a lot.

Notes
Understanding the text
The tasks cover the entire text and help in summarising the various
phases of the autobiographical account and are based on the facts
presented.
• Ask the students to read the text silently, paragraph by paragraph,
and get a quick oral feedback on what the main points of each are.
For example: Para1– description of grandmother and grandfather’s
photograph.
• At the end of the unit ask students to answer the comprehension
questions first orally and then in writing in point form.
For example, when he went to the:
– village school
– city school
– university

Talking about the text

Peer interaction about the text is necessary before students engage
in writing tasks. The questions raised in this section elicit subjective
responses to the facts in the text and also open up possibilities for
relating the events to the reader’s own life and establish the
universality of the kind of relationship and feelings described in the
text.

Thinking about language

The questions here try to:
• make the reader visualise the language that must have been used
by the author and his grandmother
• think about their own home language

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10 HORNBILL

• find equivalents in their language for English phrases

• relate to songs with emotional import in their own language.

Working with words

Highlight different uses of common words like ‘tell’ and ‘take’; words
used for different ways of walking; and semantically-related word
groups. You could add to the items by using the dictionary for
vocabulary enrichment.

Noticing form
Make students notice the use of the past perfect form of the verb that
frequently appear in the text to recount the remote past. You could
practise the form with other examples.

Things to do
Relating the topic of the text to the reader’s real-life experience; writing
about a person who one holds dear.

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THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY 11

a g3x3
x3ixxeç vx
The cardboard shows me how it was
When the two girl cousins went paddling,
Each one holding one of my mother’s hands,
And she the big girl — some twelve years or so.
All three stood still to smile through their hair
At the uncle with the camera. A sweet face,
My mother’s, that was before I was born.
And the sea, which appears to have changed less,
Washed their terribly transient feet.

Some twenty — thirty — years later

She’d laugh at the snapshot. “See Betty
And Dolly,” she’d say, “and look how they
Dressed us for the beach.” The sea holiday
Was her past, mine is her laughter. Both wry
With the laboured ease of loss.

Now she’s been dead nearly as many years

As that girl lived. And of this circumstance
There is nothing to say at all.
Its silence silences.

Infer the meanings of the following words from the context.

paddling transient

Now look up the dictionary to see if your inference is right.

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12 HORNBILL

Think it out
1. What does the word ‘cardboard’ denote in the poem? Why has
this word been used?
2. What has the camera captured?
3. What has not changed over the years? Does this suggest
something to you?
4. The poet’s mother laughed at the snapshot. What did this laugh
indicate?
5. What is the meaning of the line “Both wry with the laboured ease of
loss.”
6. What does “this circumstance” refer to?
7. The three stanzas depict three different phases. What are they?

Notes

Poems are included to heighten students’ sensitivity to literary

writing and to appreciate rhythm and sound patterns in
language. Follow these steps:
• Read the poem aloud once without the students looking at
the poem. Ask them a few general questions.
• Re-read the poem with the students looking at the poem. Ask
a few more questions to check comprehension.
• Ask students to read the poem silently and answer the questions
given, first orally and then in writing.

• The poem ‘A Photograph’ is placed after ‘The Portrait of a Lady’

because of the thematic relation between the two.
• The questions seek to examine factual and inferential
comprehension, establish empathy and draw attention to the
structure of the poem and choice of words.

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 WE’RE NOT AFRAID TO DIE ... 13

¥. “e’xe  a3xi  ie i3

e  axx e ve3ex”
şx ş  ax ¥
Notice these expressions in the text.
Infer their meaning from the context.

 honing our seafaring skills  pinpricks in the vast ocean

 ominous silence  a tousled head
 Mayday calls

IN July 1976, my wife Mary, son Jonathan, 6, daughter Suzanne, 7,

and I set sail from Plymouth, England, to duplicate the round-
the-world voyage made 200 years earlier by Captain James
Cook. For the longest time, Mary and I — a 37-year-old
businessman — had dreamt of sailing in the wake of the
famous explorer, and for the past 16 years we had spent all
our leisure time honing our seafaring skills in British waters.
Our boat Wavewalker, a 23 metre, 30 ton wooden-hulled
beauty, had been professionally built, and we had spent
months fitting it out and testing it in the roughest weather we
could find. The first leg of our planned three-year, 105,000
kilometre journey passed pleasantly as we sailed down the
west coast of Africa to Cape Town. There, before heading east,
we took on two crewmen — American Larry Vigil and Swiss
Herb Seigler — to help us tackle one of the world’s roughest
seas, the southern
Indian Ocean.

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14 HORNBILL

On our second day out of Cape Town, we began to

encounter strong gales. For the next few weeks, they blew
continuously. Gales did not worry me; but the size of the waves
was alarming — up to 15 metres, as high as our main mast.
December 25 found us 3,500 kilometres east of Cape Town.
Despite atrocious weather, we had a wonderful holiday complete
with a Christmas tree. New Year’s Day saw no improvement in
the weather, but we reasoned that it had to change soon. And it
did change — for the worse.
At dawn on January 2, the waves were gigantic. We were
sailing with only a small storm jib and were still making eight
knots. As the ship rose to the top of each wave we could see
endless enormous seas rolling towards us, and the screaming
of the wind and spray was painful to the ears. To slow the boat
down, we dropped the storm jib and lashed a heavy mooring
rope in a loop across the stern. Then we double-lashed
everything, went through our life-raft drill, attached lifelines,
donned oilskins and life jackets — and waited.
The first indication of impending disaster came at about
6 p.m., with an ominous silence. The wind dropped, and the
sky immediately grew dark. Then came a growing roar, and an
enormous cloud towered aft of the ship. With horror, I realised
that it was not a cloud, but a wave like no other I had ever seen.
It appeared perfectly vertical and almost twice the height of the
other waves, with a frightful breaking crest.
The roar increased to a thunder as the stern moved up the
face of the wave, and for a moment I thought we might ride
over it. But then a tremendous explosion shook the deck. A
torrent of green and white water broke over the ship, my head
smashed into the wheel and I was aware of flying overboard
and sinking below the waves. I accepted my approaching
death, and as I was losing consciousness, I felt quite peaceful.
Unexpectedly, my head popped out of the water. A few
metres away, Wavewalker was near capsizing, her masts almost
horizontal. Then a wave hurled her upright, my lifeline jerked
taut, I grabbed the guard rails and sailed through the air into
Wavewalker’s main boom. Subsequent waves tossed me around
the deck like a rag doll. My left ribs cracked; my mouth filled
with blood and broken teeth. Somehow, I found the wheel, lined
up the stern for the next wave and hung on.
Water, Water, Everywhere. I could feel that the ship had
water below, but I dared not abandon the wheel to investigate.
Suddenly,

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WE’RE NOT AFRAID TO DIE ... 15

the front hatch was thrown open and Mary appeared. “We’re
sinking!” she screamed. “The decks are smashed; we’re full of
water.”
“Take the wheel”, I shouted as I scrambled for the hatch.
Larry and Herb were pumping like madmen. Broken
timbers hung at crazy angles, the whole starboard side bulged
inwards; clothes, crockery, charts, tins and toys sloshed about in
deep water.
I half-swam, half-crawled into the children’s cabin. “Are you
all right?” I asked. “Yes,” they answered from an upper bunk.
“But my head hurts a bit,” said Sue, pointing to a big bump
above her eyes. I had no time to worry about bumped heads.
After finding a hammer, screws and canvas, I struggled back
on deck. With the starboard side bashed open, we were taking
water with each wave that broke over us. If I couldn’t make
some repairs, we would surely sink.
Somehow I managed to stretch canvas and secure
waterproof hatch covers across the gaping holes. Some water
continued to stream below, but most of it was now being
deflected over the side.
More problems arose when our hand pumps started to
block up with the debris floating around the cabins and the
electric pump short-circuited. The water level rose
threateningly. Back on deck I found that our two spare hand
pumps had been wrenched overboard — along with the
forestay sail, the jib, the dinghies and the main anchor.
Then I remembered we had another electric pump under
the chartroom floor. I connected it to an out-pipe, and was
thankful to find that it worked.
The night dragged on with an endless, bitterly cold routine
of pumping, steering and working the radio. We were getting
no replies to our Mayday calls — which was not surprising in
this remote corner of the world.
Sue’s head had swollen alarmingly; she had two enormous
black eyes, and now she showed us a deep cut on her arm.
When I asked why she hadn’t made more of her injuries before
this, she replied, “I didn’t want to worry you when you were
trying to save us all.”

By morning on January 3, the pumps had the water level

sufficiently under control for us to take two hours’ rest in
rotation. But we still had a tremendous leak somewhere below
the waterline and, on checking, I found that nearly all the
boat’s
2018-
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16 HORNBILL

main rib frames were smashed down to the keel. In fact, there
was nothing holding up a whole section of the starboard hull
except a few cupboard partitions.
We had survived for 15 hours since the wave hit, but
Wavewalker wouldn’t hold together long enough for us to
reach Australia. I checked our charts and calculated that there
were two small islands a few hundred kilometres to the east.
One of them, Ile Amsterdam, was a French scientific base. Our
only hope was to reach these pinpricks in the vast ocean. But
unless the wind and seas abated so we could hoist sail, our
chances would be slim indeed. The great wave had put our
auxilliary engine out of action.
On January 4, after 36 hours of continuous pumping, we
reached the last few centimetres of water. Now, we had only to
keep pace with the water still coming in. We could not set any
sail on the main mast. Pressure on the rigging would simply
pull the damaged section of the hull apart, so we hoisted the
storm jib and headed for where I thought the two islands were.
Mary found some corned beef and cracker biscuits, and we ate
our first meal in almost two days.
But our respite was short-lived. At 4 p.m. black clouds
began building up behind us; within the hour the wind was
back to 40 knots and the seas were getting higher. The
weather continued to deteriorate throughout the night, and by
dawn on January 5, our situation was again desperate.
When I went in to comfort the children, Jon asked, “Daddy,
are we going to die?” I tried to assure him that we could make it.
“But, Daddy,” he went on, “we aren’t afraid of dying if we can all
be together — you and Mummy, Sue and I.”
I could find no words with which to respond, but I left the
children’s cabin determined to fight the sea with everything I
had. To protect the weakened starboard side, I decided to heave-
to — with the undamaged port hull facing the oncoming
waves, using an improvised sea anchor of heavy nylon rope
and two 22 litre plastic barrels of paraffin.
That evening, Mary and I sat together holding hands, as the
motion of the ship brought more and more water in through the
broken planks. We both felt the end was very near.
But Wavewalker rode out the storm and by the morning of
January 6, with the wind easing, I tried to get a reading on the
sextant. Back in the chartroom, I worked on wind speeds,

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WE’RE NOT AFRAID TO DIE ... 17

changes of course, drift and current in an effort to calculate

our position. The best I could determine was that we were
somewhere in 150,000 kilometres of ocean looking for a 65
kilometre-wide island.
While I was thinking, Sue, moving painfully, joined me. The
left side of her head was now very swollen and her blackened
eyes narrowed to slits. She gave me a card she had made.
On the front she had drawn caricatures of Mary and me
with the words: “Here are some funny people. Did they make
you laugh? I laughed a lot as well.” Inside was a message: “Oh,
how I love you both. So this card is to say thank you and let’s
hope for the best.” Somehow we had to make it.

I checked and rechecked my calculations. We had lost our main

compass and I was using a spare which had not been corrected
for magnetic variation. I made an allowance for this and
another estimate of the influence of the westerly currents
which flow through this part of the Indian Ocean.
About 2 p.m., I went on deck and asked Larry to steer a
course of 185 degrees. If we were lucky, I told him with a
conviction I did not feel, he could expect to see the island at
about 5 p.m.
Then with a heavy heart, I went below, climbed on my bunk
and amazingly, dozed off. When I woke it was 6 p.m., and growing
dark. I knew we must have missed the island, and with the sail
we had left, we couldn’t hope to beat back into the westerly
winds.
At that moment, a tousled head appeared by my bunk.
“Can I have a hug?” Jonathan asked. Sue was right behind him.
“Why am I getting a hug now?” I asked.
“Because you are the best daddy in the whole world — and
the best captain,” my son replied.
“Not today, Jon, I’m afraid.”
“Why, you must be,” said Sue in a matter-of-fact voice.
“You found the island.”
“What!” I shouted.
“It’s out there in front of us,” they chorused, “as big as a
battleship.”
I rushed on deck and gazed with relief at the stark outline
of Ile Amsterdam. It was only a bleak piece of volcanic rock,
with little vegetation — the most beautiful island in the world!

2018-
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18 HORNBILL

We anchored offshore for the night, and the next morning all
28 inhabitants of the island cheered as they helped us ashore.
With land under my feet again, my thoughts were full of
Larry and Herbie, cheerful and optimistic under the direst
stress, and of Mary, who stayed at the wheel for all those
crucial hours. Most of all, I thought of a seven-year-old girl,
who did not want us to worry about a head injury (which
subsequently took six minor operations to remove a recurring
blood clot between skin and skull), and of a six-year-old boy
who was not afraid to die.

Understanding the text

1. List the steps taken by the captain
(i) to protect the ship when rough weather began.
(ii) to check the flooding of the water in the ship.
2. Describe the mental condition of the voyagers on 4 and 5 January.
3. Describe the shifts in the narration of the events as indicated in
the three sections of the text. Give a subtitle to each section.

Talking about the text

Discuss the following questions with your partner.
1. What difference did you notice between the reaction of the adults
and the children when faced with danger?
2. How does the story suggest that optimism helps to endure “the
direst stress”?
3. What lessons do we learn from such hazardous experiences when
we are face-to-face with death?
4. Why do you think people undertake such adventurous
expeditions in spite of the risks involved?

Thinking about language

1. We have come across words like ‘gale’ and ‘storm’ in the account.
Here are two more words for ‘storm’: typhoon, cyclone. How many
words does your language have for ‘storm’?

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WE’RE NOT AFRAID TO DIE ... 19

2. Here are the terms for different kinds of vessels: yacht, boat,
canoe, ship, steamer, schooner. Think of similar terms in your
language.
3. ‘Catamaran’ is a kind of a boat. Do you know which Indian
language this word is derived from? Check the dictionary.
4. Have you heard any boatmen’s songs? What kind of emotions
do these songs usually express?

Working with words

1. The following words used in the text as ship terminology are
also commonly used in another sense. In what contexts would
you use the other meaning?

knot stern boom hatch anchor

2. The following three compound words end in -ship. What does

each of them mean?

airship flagship lightship

3. The following are the meanings listed in the dictionary against

the phrase ‘take on’. In which meaning is it used in the third
paragraph of the account:

take on sth: to begin to have a particular quality or

appearance; to assume sth
take sb on: to employ sb; to engage sb
to accept sb as one’s opponent in a game,
contest or conflict
take sb/sth on: to decide to do sth; to allow sth/sb to enter
e.g. a bus, plane or ship; to take sth/sb
on board

Things to do
1. Given on the next page is a picture of a yacht. Label the parts of
the yacht using the terms given in the box.

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20 HORNBILL

bow cabin rudder cockpit

stern boom mainsail mast

2. Here is some information downloaded from the Internet on Ile

Amsterdam. You can view images of the isle if you go online.

Location South Indian Ocean, between

southernmost parts of Australia
and South Africa
Latitude and longitude 37 92 S, 77 67 E
Sovereignty France
Political status notes Part of French Southern and
Antarctic Lands
Population 35
Census notes Meteorological station staff
Land area in square 86
kilometres

3. Locate Ile Amsterdam on the world map.

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WE’RE NOT AFRAID TO DIE ... 21

Notes
This is a first person account of an adventurous ordeal that a family
experiences.

Understanding the text

This section deals with factual and global comprehension. Practice is
given in describing and noticing text organisation.

Talking about the text

Peer interaction about subjective responses to the text; empathy with
and comment on universal experiences; and human behaviour related
to risk-taking and adventure.

Thinking about language

• Variety of terms for a particular item in different languages
• English words derived from Indian languages
• Linking language to music (boatmen’s songs)

Working with words

• ‘Ship’ terms as homonyms.
• Compound words with ‘-ship’ with different connotations
• Phrasal verbs

Things to do
• Honing reference skills by finding facts from the Internet, the
encyclopedia, and maps
• Exposure to various genres of fact presentation

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22 HORNBILL

ş. iexi v: 3e x ie

a  ixxi
Notice these expressions in the text.
Infer their meaning from the context.

 forensic reconstruction  funerary treasures

 scudded across  circumvented
 casket grey  computed tomography
 resurrection  eerie detail

He was just a teenager when he

died. The last heir of a powerful
family that had ruled Egypt and its
empire for centuries, he was laid
to rest laden with gold and
eventually forgotten. Since the
discovery of his tomb in 1922, the
modern world has speculated
about what happened to him,
with murder being the most
extreme possibility. Now, leaving
his tomb for the first time in
almost 80 years, Tut has
undergone a CT scan that offers
new clues about his life and death
— and provides precise data for an
accurate forensic reconstruction
of the boyish pharaoh.

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DISCOVERING TUT: THE SAGA CONTINUES 23

AN angry wind stirred up ghostly dust devils as King Tut was

taken from his resting place in the ancient Egyptian cemetery
known as the Valley of the Kings*. Dark-bellied clouds had
scudded across the desert sky all day and now were veiling the
stars in casket grey. It was 6 p.m. on 5 January 2005. The
world’s most famous mummy glided head first into a CT scanner
brought here to probe the lingering medical mysteries of this little
understood young ruler who died more than 3,300 years ago.
All afternoon the usual line of tourists from around the
world had descended into the cramped, rock-cut tomb some
26 feet underground to pay their respects. They gazed at the
murals on the walls of the burial chamber and peered at Tut’s
gilded face, the most striking feature of his mummy-shaped outer
coffin lid. Some visitors read from guidebooks in a whisper.
Others stood silently, perhaps pondering Tut’s untimely death in
his late teens, or wondering with a shiver if the pharaoh’s curse
— death or misfortune falling upon those who disturbed him —
was really true.
“The mummy is in very bad condition because of what
Carter did in the 1920s,” said Zahi Hawass, Secretary General
of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, as he leaned over
the body for a long first look. Carter— Howard Carter, that is
— was the British archaeologist who in 1922 discovered Tut’s
tomb after years of futile searching. Its contents, though hastily
ransacked in antiquity, were surprisingly complete. They remain
the richest royal collection ever found and have become part of
the pharaoh’s legend. Stunning artefacts in gold, their eternal
brilliance meant to guarantee resurrection, caused a sensation
at the time of the discovery — and still get the most attention.
But Tut was also buried with everyday things he’d want in the
afterlife: board games, a bronze razor, linen undergarments,
cases of food and wine.
After months of carefully recording the pharaoh’s funerary
treasures, Carter began investigating his three nested coffins.
Opening the first, he found a shroud adorned with garlands of
willow and olive leaves, wild celery, lotus petals, and cornflowers,
the faded evidence of a burial in March or April. When he
finally reached the mummy, though, he ran into trouble. The
ritual resins had hardened, cementing Tut to the bottom of his
solid gold coffin. “No amount of legitimate force could move
them,” Carter wrote later. “What was to be done?”
The sun can beat down like a hammer this far south in
Egypt, and Carter tried to use it to loosen the resins. For
several hours
* See map on next page
2018-
19
24 HORNBILL

EGYPT
AFRICA ASIA
River

Nile

(map not to scale)

2018-
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DISCOVERING TUT: THE SAGA CONTINUES 25

he set the mummy outside in blazing sunshine that heated it to

149 degrees Fahrenheit. Nothing budged. He reported with
scientific detachment that “the consolidated material had to be
chiselled away from beneath the limbs and trunk before it was
possible to raise the king’s remains.”
In his defence, Carter really had little choice. If he hadn’t
cut the mummy free, thieves most certainly would have
circumvented the guards and ripped it apart to remove the
gold. In Tut’s time the royals were fabulously wealthy, and they
thought — or hoped — they could take their riches with them.
For his journey to the great beyond, King Tut was lavished with
glittering goods: precious collars, inlaid necklaces and
bracelets, rings, amulets, a ceremonial apron, sandals, sheaths
for his fingers and toes, and the now iconic inner coffin and
mask — all of pure gold. To separate Tut from his adornments,
Carter’s men removed the mummy’s head and severed nearly
every major joint. Once they had finished, they reassembled
the remains on a layer of sand in a wooden box with padding
that concealed the damage, the bed where Tut now rests.
Archaeology has changed substantially in the intervening
decades, focusing less on treasure and more on the fascinating
details of life and intriguing mysteries of death. It also uses
more sophisticated tools, including medical technology. In
1968, more than 40 years after Carter’s discovery, an anatomy
professor X-rayed the mummy and revealed a startling fact:
beneath the resin that cakes his chest, his breast-bone and front
ribs are missing.
Today diagnostic imaging can be done with computed
tomography, or CT, by which hundreds of X-rays in cross
section are put together like slices of bread to create a three-
dimensional virtual body. What more would a CT scan reveal of
Tut than the X-ray? And could it answer two of the biggest
questions still lingering about him — how did he die, and how
old was he at the time of his death?
King Tut’s demise was a big event, even by royal standards.
He was the last of his family’s line, and his funeral was the
death rattle of a dynasty. But the particulars of his passing
away and its aftermath are unclear.
Amenhotep III — Tut’s father or grandfather — was a
powerful pharaoh who ruled for almost four decades at the
height of the eighteenth dynasty’s golden age. His son
Amenhotep IV succeeded him and initiated one of the strangest
periods in the history of

2018-
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26 HORNBILL

ancient Egypt. The new pharaoh promoted the worship of the

Aten, the sun disk, changed his name to Akhenaten, or ‘servant
of the Aten,’ and moved the religious capital from the old city
of Thebes to the new city of Akhetaten, known now as
Amarna. He further shocked the country by attacking Amun, a
major god, smashing his images and closing his temples. “It
must have been a horrific time,” said Ray Johnson, director of
the University of Chicago’s research centre in Luxor, the site of
ancient Thebes. “The family that had ruled for centuries was
coming to an end, and then Akhenaten went a little wacky.”
After Akhenaten’s death, a mysterious ruler named
Smenkhkare appeared briefly and exited with hardly a trace.
And then a very young Tutankhaten took the throne — King
Tut as he’s widely known today. The boy king soon changed his
name to Tutankhamun, ‘living image of Amun,’ and oversaw a
restoration of the old ways. He reigned for about nine years —
and then died unexpectedly.
Regardless of his fame and the speculations about his fate, Tut
is one mummy among many in Egypt. How many? No one knows.
The Egyptian Mummy Project, which began an inventory in late
2003, has recorded almost 600 so far and is still counting. The next
phase: scanning the mummies with a portable CT machine
donated by the National Geographic Society and Siemens, its
manufacturer. King Tut is one of the first mummies to be scanned —
in death, as in life, moving regally ahead of his countrymen.
A CT machine scanned the mummy head to toe, creating
1,700 digital X-ray images in cross section. Tut’s head, scanned
in 0.62 millimetre slices to register its intricate structures,
takes on eerie detail in the resulting image. With Tut’s entire
body similarly recorded, a team of specialists in radiology,
forensics, and anatomy began to probe the secrets that the
winged goddesses of a gilded burial shrine protected for so
long.
The night of the scan, workmen carried Tut from the tomb
in his box. Like pallbearers they climbed a ramp and a flight of
stairs into the swirling sand outside, then rose on a hydraulic
lift into the trailer that held the scanner. Twenty minutes later
two men emerged, sprinted for an office nearby, and returned
with a pair of white plastic fans. The million-dollar scanner had
quit because of sand in a cooler fan. “Curse of the pharaoh,”
joked a guard nervously.

2018-
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DISCOVERING TUT: THE SAGA CONTINUES 27

Eventually the substitute fans worked well enough to finish

the procedure. After checking that no data had been lost, the
technicians turned Tut over to the workmen, who carried him
back to his tomb. Less than three hours after he was removed
from his coffin, the pharaoh again rested in peace where the
funerary priests had laid him so long ago.
Back in the trailer a technician pulled up astonishing images
of Tut on a computer screen. A grey head took shape from a
scattering of pixels, and the technician spun and tilted it in
every direction. Neck vertebrae appeared as clearly as in an
anatomy class. Other images revealed a hand, several views of
the rib cage, and a transection of the skull. But for now the
pressure was off. Sitting back in his chair, Zahi Hawass smiled,
visibly relieved that nothing had gone seriously wrong. “I didn’t
sleep last night, not for a second,” he said. “I was so worried.
But now I think I will go and sleep.”

Mural in King Tut’s tomb showing King

Tut with Osiris, the god of the afterlife

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28 HORNBILL

By the time we left the trailer, descending metal stairs to

the sandy ground, the wind had stopped. The winter air lay
cold and still, like death itself, in this valley of the departed. Just
above the entrance to Tut’s tomb stood Orion — the
constellation that the ancient Egyptians knew as the soul of
Osiris, the god of the afterlife — watching over the boy king.

(Source: National Geographic, Vol 207, No. 6)

Understanding the text

1. Give reasons for the following.
(i) King Tut’s body has been subjected to repeated scrutiny.
(ii) Howard Carter’s investigation was resented.
(iii) Carter had to chisel away the solidified resins to raise the
king’s remains.
(iv) Tut’s body was buried along with gilded treasures.
(v) The boy king changed his name from Tutankhaten to
Tutankhamun.
2. (i) List the deeds that led Ray Johnson to describe Akhenaten
as “wacky”.
(ii) What were the results of the CT scan?
(iii) List the advances in technology that have improved forensic
analysis.
(iv) Explain the statement, “King Tut is one of the first mummies
to be scanned — in death, as in life...”

Talking about the text

Discuss the following in groups of two pairs, each pair in a group
taking opposite points of view.
1. Scientific intervention is necessary to unearth buried mysteries.
2. Advanced technology gives us conclusive evidence of past events.
3. Traditions, rituals and funerary practices must be respected.
4. Knowledge about the past is useful to complete our knowledge
of the world we live in.

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DISCOVERING TUT: THE SAGA CONTINUES 29

Thinking about language

1. Read the following piece of information from The Encyclopedia of
Language by David Crystal.
Egyptian is now extinct: its history dates from before the third
millennium B.C., preserved in many hieroglyphic inscriptions
and papyrus manuscripts. Around the second century A.D.,
it developed into a language known as Coptic. Coptic may
still have been used as late as the early nineteenth century
and is still used as a religious language by Monophysite
Christians in Egypt.
2. What do you think are the reasons for the extinction of
languages?
3. Do you think it is important to preserve languages?
4. In what ways do you think we could help prevent the extinction
of languages and dialects?

Working with words

1. Given below are some interesting combinations of words. Explain
why they have been used together.
(i) ghostly dust devils (vi)
dark-bellied clouds
(ii) desert sky (vii)
casket grey
(iii) stunning artefacts (viii)
eternal brilliance
(iv) funerary treasures (ix)
ritual resins
(v) scientific detachment (x)
virtual body
2. Here are some commonly used medical terms. Find out their
meanings.

CT scan MRI tomography

autopsy dialysis ECG
post mortem angiography biopsy

Things to do
1. The constellation Orion is associated with the legend of Osiris,
the god of the afterlife.

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30 HORNBILL

Find out the astronomical descriptions and legends associated

with the following.
(i) Ursa Major (Saptarishi mandala)
(ii) Polaris (Dhruva tara)
(iii) Pegasus (Winged horse)
(iv) Sirius (Dog star)
(v) Gemini (Mithuna)

2. Some of the leaves and flowers mentioned in the passage for

adorning the dead are willow, olive, celery, lotus, cornflower. Which
of these are common in our country?
3. Name some leaves and flowers that are used as adornments in
our country.

Notes
Understanding the text
Factual comprehension: giving reasons, listing

Talking about the text

Debate on issues raised in the text related to rediscovering history
with the help of technology; respect for traditions (reflection on issues)

Thinking about language

Extinction of language and language preservation

Working with words

Understanding adjectival collocations; common medical terms

Things to do
• Relating astronomical facts and legends (across the curriculum)
• Finding out botanical correlates

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DISCOVERING TUT: THE SAGA CONTINUES 31

v3e x v

ve 3e
The Laburnum top is silent, quite still
In the afternoon yellow September sunlight,
A few leaves yellowing, all its seeds fallen.

Till the goldfinch comes, with a twitching chirrup

A suddenness, a startlement, at a branch end.
Then sleek as a lizard, and alert, and abrupt,
She enters the thickness, and a machine starts up
Of chitterings, and a tremor of wings, and trillings
— The whole tree trembles and thrills.
It is the engine of her family.
She stokes it full, then flirts out to a branch-end
Showing her barred face identity mask

Then with eerie delicate whistle-chirrup whisperings

She launches away, towards the infinite

And the laburnum subsides to empty.

laburnum: a short tree with hanging branches, yellow

flowers and poisonous seeds
goldfinch: a small singing bird with yellow feathers on
its wings

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32 HORNBILL

Find out
1. What laburnum is called in your language.
2. Which local bird is like the goldfinch.

Think it out
1. What do you notice about the beginning and the ending of the
poem?
2. To what is the bird’s movement compared? What is the basis for
the comparison?
3. Why is the image of the engine evoked by the poet?
4. What do you like most about the poem?
5. What does the phrase “her barred face identity mask” mean?

Note down
1. the sound words
2. the movement words
3. the dominant colour in the poem.

List the following

1. Words which describe ‘sleek’, ‘alert’ and ‘abrupt’.
2. Words with the sound ‘ch’ as in ‘chart’ and ‘tr’ as in ‘trembles’ in
the poem.
3. Other sounds that occur frequently in the poem.

Thinking about language

Look for some other poem on a bird or a tree in English or any other
language.

Try this out

Write four lines in verse form on any tree that you see around you.

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THE LABURNUM TOP 33

Notes
This poem has been placed after a text which has references to
names of plants for thematic sequencing.

Understanding the poem

• Glossing of ‘laburnum’ and ‘goldfinch’
• Factual understanding
• Movement of thought and structuring (poetic sensitivity)
• Focus on figures of speech and imagery used (poetic sensitivity)
• Attention to sounds, lexical collocations (poetic sensitivity)

Thinking about language

• Finding equivalents in other languages (multilingualism)
• Relating to thematically similar poems in other languages
(multilingualism)
• Attempt at creativity

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 34 HORNBILL

a. e 3 3e xx

3xie vxexç
Notice these expressions in the text.
Infer their meaning from the context.

 anecdote  illusionistic likeness

 delicate realism  conceptual space
 figurative painting

A WONDERFUL old tale is told about the painter Wu Daozi, who lived
in the eighth century. His last painting was a landscape
commissioned by the Tang Emperor Xuanzong, to decorate a
palace wall. The master had hidden his work behind a screen,
so only the Emperor would see it. For a long while, the
Emperor admired the wonderful scene, discovering forests, high
mountains, waterfalls, clouds floating in an immense sky, men
on hilly paths, birds in flight. “Look, Sire”, said the painter, “in
this cave, at the foot of the mountain, dwells a spirit.” The
painter clapped his hands, and the entrance to the cave opened.
“The inside is splendid, beyond anything words can convey.
Please let me show Your Majesty the way.” The painter entered
the cave; but the entrance closed behind him, and before the
astonished Emperor could move or utter a word, the painting
had vanished from the wall. Not a trace of Wu Daozi’s brush
was left — and the artist was never seen again in this world.
Such stories played an important part in China’s classical
education. The books of Confucius and Zhuangzi are full of
them; they helped the master to guide his disciple in the right
direction. Beyond the anecdote, they are deeply revealing of
the spirit in

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LANDSCAPE OF THE SOUL 35

which art was considered. Contrast this story — or another

famous one about a painter who wouldn’t draw the eye of a
dragon he had painted, for fear it would fly out of the painting —
with an old story from my native Flanders that I find most
representative of Western painting.
In fifteenth century Antwerp, a master blacksmith called
Quinten Metsys fell in love with a painter’s daughter. The father
would not accept a son-in-law in such a profession. So Quinten
sneaked into the painter’s studio and painted a fly on his latest
panel, with such delicate realism that the master tried to swat
it away before he realised what had happened. Quinten was
immediately admitted as an apprentice into his studio. He
married his beloved and went on to become one of the most
famous painters of his age. These two stories illustrate what
each form of art is trying to achieve: a perfect, illusionistic
likeness in Europe, the essence of inner life and spirit in Asia.
In the Chinese story, the Emperor commissions a painting
and appreciates its outer appearance. But the artist reveals to
him the true meaning of his work. The Emperor may rule over
the territory he has conquered, but only the artist knows the
way within. “Let me show the Way”, the ‘Dao’, a word that means
both the path or the method, and the mysterious works of the
Universe. The painting is gone, but the artist has reached his goal
— beyond any material appearance.
A classical Chinese landscape is not meant to reproduce an
actual view, as would a Western figurative painting. Whereas
the European painter wants you to borrow his eyes and look at
a particular landscape exactly as he saw it, from a specific
angle, the Chinese painter does not choose a single viewpoint.
His landscape is not a ‘real’ one, and you can enter it from any
point, then travel in it; the artist creates a path for your eyes to
travel up and down, then back again, in a leisurely movement.
This is even more true in the case of the horizontal scroll, in
which the action of slowly opening one section of the painting,
then rolling it up to move on to the other, adds a dimension of
time which is unknown in any other form of painting. It also
requires the active participation of the viewer, who decides at
what pace he will travel through the painting — a participation
which is physical as well as mental. The Chinese painter does
not want you to borrow his eyes; he wants you to enter his
mind. The landscape is an inner one, a spiritual and conceptual
space.

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36 HORNBILL

This concept is expressed as shanshui, literally ‘mountain-

water’ which used together represent the word ‘landscape’. More
than two elements of an image, these represent two
complementary poles, reflecting the Daoist view of the universe.
The mountain is Yang — reaching vertically towards Heaven,
stable, warm, and dry in the sun, while the water is Yin —
horizontal and resting on the earth, fluid, moist and cool. The
interaction of Yin, the receptive, feminine aspect of universal
energy, and its counterpart Yang, active and masculine, is of
course a fundamental notion of Daoism. What is often
overlooked is an essential third element, the Middle Void where
their interaction takes place. This can be compared with the yogic
practice of pranayama; breathe in, retain, breathe out — the
suspension of breath is the Void where meditation occurs. The
Middle Void is essential — nothing can happen without it; hence
the importance of the white, unpainted space in Chinese
landscape.
This is also where Man finds a fundamental role. In that
space between Heaven and Earth, he becomes the conduit
of communication between both poles of the Universe. His
presence is essential, even if it’s only suggested; far from being
lost or oppressed by the lofty peaks, he is, in Francois Cheng’s
wonderful expression, “the eye of the landscape”.

[excerpt from ‘Landscape of the Soul:

Ethics and Spirituality in Chinese
Painting’, slightly edited]

Getting Inside ‘Outsider Art’

When French painter Jean Dubuffet mooted the concept of
‘art brut’ in the 1940s, the art of the untrained visionary
was of minority interest. From its almost veiled beginnings,
‘outsider art’ has gradually become the fastest growing area
of interest in contemporary art internationally.
This genre is described as the art of those who have ‘no
right’ to be artists as they have received no formal training,
yet show talent and artistic insight. Their works are a
stimulating contrast to a lot of mainstream offerings.
Around the time Dubuffet was propounding his
concept, in India “an untutored genius was creating
paradise”. Years ago the little patch of jungle that he began
clearing to make himself a garden sculpted with stone and

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LANDSCAPE OF THE SOUL 37

A Rock Garden sculpture made of broken bangles by Nek Chand

recycled material is known to the world today as the Rock
Garden, at Chandigarh.
Its 80-year-old creator– director, Nek Chand, is now hailed
as India’s biggest contributor to outsider art. The fiftieth issue
(Spring 2005) of Raw Vision, a UK-based magazine pioneer
in outsider art publications, features Nek Chand, and his
Rock Garden sculpture ‘Women by the Waterfall’ on its
anniversary issue’s cover.
The notion of ‘art brut’ or ‘raw art’, was of works that
were in their raw state as regards cultural and artistic
influences. Anything and everything from a tin to a sink to a
broken down car could be material for a work of art,
something Nek Chand has taken to dizzying heights.
Recognising his art as “an outstanding testimony of the
difference a single man can make when he lives his dream”,
the Swiss Commission for UNESCO will be honouring him
by way of a European exposition of his works. The five-month
interactive show, ‘Realm of Nek Chand’, beginning October
will be held at leading museums in Switzerland, Belgium,
France and Italy. “The biggest reward is walking through the
garden and seeing people enjoy my creation,” Nek Chand
says.

BRINDA SURI
Hindustan Times, 28 August 2005

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 38 HORNBILL

Understanding the text

1. (i) Contrast the Chinese view of art with the European view
with examples.
(ii) Explain the concept of shanshui.
2. (i) What do you understand by the terms ‘outsider art’ and
‘art brut’ or ‘raw art’?
(ii) Who was the “untutored genius who created a paradise”
and what is the nature of his contribution to art?

Talking about the text

Discuss the following statements in groups of four.
1. “The Emperor may rule over the territory he has conquered, but
only the artist knows the way within.”
2. “The landscape is an inner one, a spiritual and conceptual space.”

Thinking about language

1. Find out the correlates of Yin and Yang in other cultures.
2. What is the language spoken in Flanders?

Working with words

I. The following common words are used in more than one sense.

panel studio brush

essence material

Examine the following sets of sentences to find out what the

words, ‘panel’ and ‘essence’ mean in different contexts.
1. (i) The masks from Bawa village in Mali look like long
panels of decorated wood.
(ii) Judge H. Hobart Grooms told the jury panel he had
heard the reports.
(iii) The panel is laying the groundwork for an international
treaty.

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LANDSCAPE OF THE SOUL 39

(iv) The glass panels of the window were broken.

(v) Through the many round tables, workshops and panel
discussions, a consensus was reached.
(vi) The sink in the hinged panel above the bunk drains
into the head.
2. (i) Their repetitive structure must have taught the people
around the great composer the essence of music.
(ii) Part of the answer is in the proposition; but the essence
is in the meaning.
(iii) The implications of these schools of thought are of
practical essence for the teacher.
(iv) They had added vanilla essence to the pudding.
II. Now find five sentences each for the rest of the words to show
the different senses in which each of them is used.

Noticing form
• A classical Chinese landscape is not meant to reproduce an actual
view, as would a Western figurative painting.
• Whereas the European painter wants you to borrow his eyes and
look at a particular landscape exactly as he saw it, from a specific
angle, the Chinese painter does not choose a single viewpoint.
The above two examples are ways in which contrast may be expressed.
Combine the following sets of ideas to show the contrast between them.
1. (i) European art tries to achieve a perfect, illusionistic likeness.
(ii) Asian art tries to capture the essence of inner life and spirit.
2. (i) The Emperor commissions a painting and appreciates its
outer appearance.
(ii) The artist reveals to him the true meaning of his work.
3. (i) The Emperor may rule over the territory he has conquered.
(ii) The artist knows the way within.

Things to do
1. Find out about as many Indian schools of painting as you can.
Write a short note on the distinctive features of each school.
2. Find out about experiments in recycling that help in
environmental conservation.

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40 HORNBILL

Notes
Understanding the text
Factual and global understanding

Talking about the text

Discussing spiritual experiences

Thinking about language

• Inter-cultural philosophical viewpoints and related terms
• Knowing about the languages of the world

Working with words

Using words according to their function

Noticing form
Use of conjunctions to express contrast

Soaring Interest in Chinese Art

A painting by an 86-year old Chinese master has gone under

the hammer for a record 30 million yuan, highlighting soaring
world interest in Chinese art.
The work by Wu Guanzhong depicting a cluster of
colourful parrots sitting on tree branches smashed the
previous record price for a Chinese ink painting of 23 million
yuan for a twelfth century masterpiece by the Song Dynasty
emperor, Huizong. “Wu Guanzhong has successfully melded
Chinese and Western artistic traditions,” said Ma Zhefei,
marketing manager from China’s Poly Art and Culture Co.

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LANDSCAPE OF THE SOUL 41

v3e rie 3 3e i

x 3i
And who art thou? said I to the soft-falling shower,
Which, strange to tell, gave me an answer, as here
translated: I am the Poem of Earth, said the voice of the
rain,
Eternal I rise impalpable out of the land and the
bottomless sea,
Upward to heaven, whence, vaguely form’d, altogether
changed, and yet the same,
I descend to lave the droughts, atomies, dust-layers of
the globe,
And all that in them without me were seeds only, latent,
unborn;
And forever, by day and night, I give back life to my
own origin,
And make pure and beautify it;
(For song, issuing from its birth-place, after fulfilment,
wandering
Reck’d or unreck’d, duly with love returns.)

impalpable: something that cannot be touched

lave: wash; bathe
atomies: tiny particles
latent: hidden

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 42 HORNBILL

Think it out
I. 1. There are two voices in the poem. Who do they belong to?
Which lines indicate this?
2. What does the phrase “strange to tell” mean?
3. There is a parallel drawn between rain and music. Which
words indicate this? Explain the similarity between the two.
4. How is the cyclic movement of rain brought out in the poem?
Compare it with what you have learnt in science.
5. Why are the last two lines put within brackets?
6. List the pairs of opposites found in the poem.

II. Notice the following sentence patterns.

1. And who art thou? said I to the soft-falling shower.
2. I am the Poem of Earth, said the voice of the rain.
3. Eternal I rise
4. For song… duly with love returns
Rewrite the above sentences in prose.
III. Look for some more poems on the rain and see how this one is
different from them.

Notes
This is a nature poem celebrating the coming of the rain.

Understanding the poem

• Voices in the poem
••••• Sense of the poem
••••• Relating to the process of rainfall scientifically (across
the curriculum)
••••• Noticing sentence structure in poems
••••• Comparison with other rain poems

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THE AILING PLANET: THE GREEN MOVEMENT’S ROLE 43

. v3e aixi gxe: 3e şxee yee’

xe
i gxş3ix
Notice these expressions in the text.
Infer their meaning from the context.

 a holistic and ecological view  inter alia

 sustainable development  decimated
 languish  catastrophic depletion
 ignominious darkness  transcending concern

The following article 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.

ONE cannot recall any movement in world history which has

gripped the imagination of the entire human race so
completely and so rapidly as the Green Movement which
started nearly twenty-five years ago. In 1972 the world’s first
nationwide Green party was founded in New Zealand. Since
then, the movement has not looked back.
We have shifted — one hopes, irrevocably — from the
mechanistic view to a holistic and ecological view of the
world. It is a shift in human perceptions as revolutionary
as that

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44 HORNBILL

introduced by Copernicus who taught mankind in the sixteenth

century that the earth and the other planets revolved round
the sun. For the first time in human history, there is a growing
worldwide consciousness that the earth itself is a living
organism — an enormous being of which we are parts. It has
its own metabolic needs and vital processes which need to be
respected and preserved.
The earth’s vital signs reveal a patient in declining health.
We have begun to realise our ethical obligations to be good
stewards of the planet and responsible trustees of the legacy
to future generations.
The concept of sustainable development was popularised
in 1987 by the World Commission on Environment and
Development. In its report it defined the idea as “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.
In the zoo at Lusaka, Zambia, there is a cage where the
notice reads, ‘The world’s most dangerous animal’. Inside the
cage there is no animal but a mirror where you see yourself.
Thanks to the efforts of a number of agencies in different
countries, a new awareness has now dawned upon the most
dangerous animal in the world. He has realised the wisdom of
shifting from a system based on domination to one based on
partnership.
Scientists have catalogued about 1.4 million living species
with which mankind shares the earth. Estimates vary widely as
regards the still-uncatalogued living species — biologists
reckon that about three to a hundred million other living
species still languish unnamed in ignominious darkness.
One of the early international commissions which dealt, inter
alia, with the question of ecology and environment was the
Brandt Commission which had a distinguished Indian as one of its
members — Mr L.K. Jha. The First Brandt Report raised the
question — “Are we to leave our successors a scorched planet of
advancing deserts, impoverished landscapes and ailing
environment?”
Mr Lester R. Brown in his thoughtful book, The Global
Economic Prospect, points out that the earth’s principal
biological systems are four — fisheries, forests, grasslands, and
croplands — and they form the foundation of the global

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THE AILING PLANET: THE GREEN MOVEMENT’S ROLE 45

economic system. In addition to supplying our food, these four

systems provide virtually all the raw materials for industry
except minerals and petroleum-derived synthetics. In large
areas of the world, human claims on these systems are
reaching an unsustainable level, a point where their
productivity is being impaired. When this happens, fisheries
collapse, forests disappear, grasslands are converted into
barren wastelands, and croplands deteriorate. In a protein-
conscious and protein- hungry world, over-fishing is common
every day. In poor countries, local forests are being decimated
in order to procure firewood for cooking. In some places,
firewood has become so expensive that “what goes under the
pot now costs more than what goes inside it”. Since the
tropical forest is, in the words of Dr Myers, “the powerhouse of
evolution”, several species of life face extinction as a result of its
destruction.
It has been well said that forests precede mankind;
deserts follow. The world’s ancient patrimony of tropical
forests is now eroding at the rate of forty to fifty million acres a
year, and the growing use of dung for burning deprives the soil of
an important natural fertiliser. The World Bank estimates that a
five-fold increase in the rate of forest planting is needed to cope
with the expected fuelwood demand in the year 2000.
James Speth, the President of the World Resources
Institute, said the other day, “We were saying that we are
losing the forests at an acre a second, but it is much closer to
an acre-and-a-half to a second”.
Article 48A of the Constitution of India provides that “the
State shall endeavour to protect and improve the environment
and to safeguard the forests and wildlife of the country”. But
what causes endless anguish is the fact that laws are never
respected nor enforced in India. (For instance, the Constitution
says that casteism, untouchability and bonded labour shall be
abolished, but they flourish shamelessly even after forty-four
years of the operation of the Constitution.) A recent report of our
Parliament’s Estimates Committee has highlighted the near
catastrophic depletion of India’s forests over the last four
decades. India, according to reliable data, is losing its forests at
the rate of 3.7 million acres a year. Large areas, officially
designated as forest land, “are already virtually treeless”. The
actual loss of forests is estimated to be about eight times the
rate indicated by government statistics.

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46 HORNBILL

A three-year study using satellites and aerial photography

conducted by the United Nations, warns that the environment
has deteriorated so badly that it is ‘critical’ in many of the
eighty- eight countries investigated.
There can be no doubt that the growth of world
population is one of the strongest factors distorting the future
of human society. It took mankind more than a million years to
reach the first billion. That was the world population around
the year 1800. By the year 1900, a second billion was added,
and the twentieth century has added another 3.7 billion. The
present world population is estimated at 5.7 billion. Every four
days the world population increases by one million.
Fertility falls as incomes rise, education spreads, and health
improves. Thus development is the best contraceptive. But
development itself may not be possible if the present increase in
numbers continues.
The rich get richer, and the poor beget children which
condemns them to remain poor. More children does not mean
more workers, merely more people without work. It is not
suggested that human beings be treated like cattle and
compulsorily sterilised. But there is no alternative to voluntary
family planning without introducing an element of coercion.
The choice is really between control of population and
perpetuation of poverty.
The population of India is estimated to be 920 million
today — more than the entire populations of Africa and South
America put together. No one familiar with the conditions in
India would doubt that the hope of the people would die in
their hungry hutments unless population control is given
topmost priority.
For the first time in human history we see a transcending
concern — the survival not just of the people but of the planet.
We have begun to take a holistic view of the very basis of our
existence. The environmental problem does not necessarily signal
our demise, it is our passport for the future. The emerging new
world vision has ushered in the Era of Responsibility. It is a holistic
view, an ecological view, seeing the world as an integrated whole
rather than a dissociated collection of parts.
Industry has a most crucial role to play in this new Era of
Responsibility. What a transformation would be effected if more

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THE AILING PLANET: THE GREEN MOVEMENT’S ROLE 47

businessmen shared the view of the Chairman of Du Pont,

Mr Edgar S. Woolard who, five years ago, declared himself to be
the Company’s “Chief Environmental Officer”. He said, “Our
continued existence as a leading manufacturer requires that we
excel in environmental performance.”
Of all the statements made by Margaret Thatcher during the
years of her Prime Ministership, none has passed so decisively
into the current coin of English usage as her felicitous words:
“No generation has a freehold on this earth. All we have is a life
tenancy
— with a full repairing lease”. In the words of Mr Lester Brown,
“We have not inherited this earth from our forefathers; we have
borrowed it from our children.”

Understanding the text

1. Locate the lines in the text that support the title ‘The Ailing
Planet’.
2. What does the notice ‘The world’s most dangerous animal’ at a
cage in the zoo at Lusaka, Zambia, signify?
3. How are the earth’s principal biological systems being depleted?
4. Why does the author aver that the growth of world population is
one of the strongest factors distorting the future of human society?

Talking about the text

Discuss in groups of four.
1. Laws are never respected nor enforced in India.
2. “Are we to leave our successors a scorched planet of advancing
deserts, impoverished landscapes and an ailing environment?”
3. “We have not inherited this earth from our forefathers; we have
borrowed it from our children”.
4. The problems of overpopulation that directly affect our
everyday life.

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 48 HORNBILL

Thinking about language

The phrase ‘inter alia’ meaning ‘among other things’ is one of the
many Latin expressions commonly used in English.
Find out what these Latin phrases mean.
1. prima facie
2. ad hoc
3. in camera
4. ad infinitum
5. mutatis mutandis
6. caveat
7. tabula rasa

Working with words

I. Locate the following phrases in the text and study their
connotation.
1. gripped the imagination of
2. dawned upon
3. ushered in
4. passed into current coin
5. passport of the future
II. The words ‘grip’, ‘dawn’, ‘usher’, ‘coin’, ‘passport’ have a literal
as well as a figurative meaning. Write pairs of sentences using
each word in the literal as well as the figurative sense.

Things to do
1. Make posters to highlight the importance of the Green Movement.
2. Maintain a record of the trees cut down and the parks
demolished in your area, or any other act that violates the
environment. Write to newspapers reporting on any such acts
that disturb you.

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THE AILING PLANET: THE GREEN MOVEMENT’S ROLE 49

Notes
Understanding the text
• Environmental issues
• Social issues

Talking about the text

• Contemporary issues
• Envisioning the future

Thinking about language

Latin expressions commonly used

Working with words

• Connotations
• Finding literal and figurative meanings

Things to do
Making children aware of their reponsibilities towards the
environment

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50 HORNBILL

d. v3e xi rexi

vexee i
Notice these expressions in the text.
Infer their meaning from the context.

 remove  kept in  sadist

 slackers  got carried away  shrivelled up
 muck  cut

This is an excerpt from The Browning Version*. The scene is set

in a school. Frank is young and Crocker-Harris, middle-aged.
Both are masters. Taplow is a boy of sixteen who has come in
to do extra work for Crocker-Harris. But the latter has not yet
arrived, and Frank finds Taplow waiting.
FRANK: Do I know you?
TAPLOW: No, sir.
FRANK: What’s your
name? TAPLOW: Taplow.
FRANK: Taplow! No, I don’t. You’re not a scientist I gather?
TAPLOW: No, sir, I’m still in the lower fifth. I can’t specialise
until next term — that’s to say, if I’ve got my
remove all right.
FRANK: Don’t you know if you’ve got your remove?
TAPLOW: No sir, Mr Crocker-Harris doesn’t tell us the
results like the other masters.
* The reference within the play of Robert Browning’s translation of the Greek
tragedy, Agamemnon

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THE BROWNING VERSION 51

FRANK: Why not?

TAPLOW: Well, you know what he’s like, sir.
FRANK: I believe there is a rule that form results should
only be announced by the headmaster on the
last day of term.
TAPLOW: Yes — but who else pays attention to it — except
Mr Crocker-Harris?
FRANK: I don’t, I admit — but that’s no criterion. So you’ve
got to wait until tomorrow to know your fate, have
you?
TAPLOW: Yes, sir.
FRANK: Supposing the answer is favourable — what then?
TAPLOW: Oh — science, sir, of course.
FRANK: (sadly) Yes. We get all the slackers.
TAPLOW: (protestingly) I’m extremely interested in science, sir.
FRANK: Are you? I’m not. Not, at least, in the science I
have to teach.
TAPLOW: Well, anyway, sir, it’s a good deal more exciting
than this muck (indicating his book).
FRANK: What is this muck?
TAPLOW: Aeschylus, sir. The Agamemnon.
FRANK: And your considered view is that the Agamemnon
is muck?
TAPLOW: Well, no, sir. I don’t think the play is muck —
exactly. I suppose, in a way, it’s rather a good
plot, really, a wife murdering her husband and all
that. I only meant the way it’s taught to us —
just a lot of Greek words strung together and fifty
lines if you get them wrong.
FRANK: You sound a little bitter, Taplow.
TAPLOW: I am rather, sir.
FRANK: Kept in, eh?
TAPLOW: No, sir. Extra
work.
FRANK: Extra work — on the last day of school?

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52 HORNBILL

T APLOW : Yes, sir, and I might be playing golf. You’d think

he’d have enough to do anyway himself,
considering he’s leaving tomorrow for good —
but oh no, I missed a day last week when I
was ill — so here I am — and look at the
weather, sir.
FRANK: Bad luck. Still there’s one comfort. You’re pretty
well certain to get your remove tomorrow for
being a good boy in taking extra work.
TAPLOW: Well, I’m not so sure, sir. That would be true of
the ordinary masters, all right. They just wouldn’t
dare not to give a chap a remove after his taking
extra work. But those sort of rules don’t apply to
the Crock — Mr Crocker-Harris. I asked him
yesterday outright if he’d given me a remove and
do you know what he said, sir?
FRANK: No. What?
TAPLOW: (imitating a very gentle, rather throaty voice) “My
dear Taplow, I have given you exactly what you
deserve. No less; and certainly no more.” Do you
know sir, I think he may have marked me down,
rather than up, for taking extra work. I mean, the
man’s hardly human. (He breaks off quickly.)
Sorry, sir. Have I gone too far?
FRANK: Yes. Much too far.
TAPLOW: Sorry, sir. I got carried away.
FRANK: Evidently. (He picks up a newspaper and opens it)
— Er Taplow.
TAPLOW: Yes, sir?
FRANK: What was that Crocker-Harris said to you? Just —
er — repeat it, would you?
TAPLOW: (imitating again) “My dear Taplow, I have given
you exactly what you deserve. No less; and
certainly no more.”
FRANK: (looking severe) Not in the least like him. Read
your nice Aeschylus and be quiet.
TAPLOW: (with dislike) Aeschylus.

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THE BROWNING VERSION 53

FRANK: Look, what time did Mr Crocker-Harris tell you to

be here?
TAPLOW: Six-thirty, sir.
FRANK: Well, he’s ten minutes late. Why don’t you cut?
You could still play golf before lock-up.
TAPLOW: (really shocked) Oh, no, I couldn’t cut. Cut the
Crock — Mr Crocker-Harris? I shouldn’t think it’s
ever been done in the whole time he’s been
here. God knows what would happen if I did.
He’d probably follow me home, or something ...
FRANK: I must admit I envy him the effect he seems to
have on you boys in the form. You all seem scared
to death of him. What does he do — beat you all,
or something?
TAPLOW: Good Lord, no. He’s not a sadist, like one or two
of the others.
FRANK: I beg your pardon?
TAPLOW: A sadist, sir, is someone who gets pleasure out of
giving pain.
FRANK: Indeed? But I think you went on to say that some
other masters...
TAPLOW: Well, of course, they are, sir. I won’t mention
names, but you know them as well as I do. Of
course I know most masters think we boys don’t
understand a thing — but, sir, you’re different.
You’re young — well, comparatively, anyway —
and you’re science. You must know what
sadism is.
FRANK: (after a pause) Good Lord! What are our schools
coming to?
TAPLOW: Anyway, the Crock isn’t a sadist. That’s what I’m
saying. He wouldn’t be so frightening if he were
— because at least it would show he had some
feelings. But he hasn’t. He’s all shrivelled up
inside like a nut and he seems to hate people to
like him. It’s funny, that. I don’t know any other
master who doesn’t like being liked —

2018-
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54 HORNBILL

FRANK: And I don’t know any boy who doesn’t use that for
his own purposes.
TAPLOW: Well, it’s natural sir. But not with the Crock —
FRANK: Mr Crocker-Harris.
TAPLOW: Mr Crocker-Harris. The funny thing is that in spite
of everything, I do rather like him. I can’t help it.
And sometimes I think he sees it and that seems
to shrivel him up even more —
FRANK: I’m sure you’re exaggerating.
TAPLOW: No, sir. I’m not. In form the other day he made
one of his classical jokes. Of course nobody
laughed because nobody understood it, myself
included. Still, I knew he’d meant it as funny, so
I laughed. Out of ordinary common politeness,
and feeling a bit sorry for him for having made a
poor joke. Now I can’t remember what the joke
was, but suppose I make it. Now you laugh, sir.
(Frank laughs.)
TAPLOW: (in a gentle, throaty voice) “Taplow — you laughed
at my little joke, I noticed. I must confess that I
am pleased at the advance your Latin has made
since you so readily have understood what the
rest of the form did not. Perhaps, now, you would
be good enough to explain it to them, so that they
too can share your pleasure”.

The door up right is pushed open and Millie Crocker-Harris

enters. She is a thin woman in her late thirties, rather more
smartly dressed than the general run of schoolmasters’
wives. She is wearing a cape and carries a shopping
basket. She closes the door and then stands by the screen
watching Taplow and Frank. It is a few seconds before
they notice her.

FRANK: Come along, Taplow (moves slowly above the

desk). Do not be so selfish as to keep a good joke
to yourself. Tell the others… (He breaks off
suddenly, noticing Millie.) Oh Lord!

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THE BROWNING VERSION 55

Frank turns quickly, and seems infinitely relieved at

seeing Millie.
FRANK: Oh, hullo.
MILLIE: (without expression) Hullo. (She comes down to
the sideboard and puts her basket on it.)
TAPLOW: (moving up to left of Frank; whispering frantically)
Do you think she heard?
FRANK: (shakes his head comfortingly. Millie takes off her
cape and hangs it on the hall-stand.) I think she
did. She was standing there quite a time.
TAPLOW: If she did and she tells him, there goes my
remove. FRANK: Nonsense. (He crosses to the fireplace.)
Millie takes the basket from the sideboard, moves above
the table and puts the basket on it.
MILLIE: (to Taplow) Waiting for my husband?
TAPLOW: (moving down left of the table) Er-yes.
MILLIE: He’s at the Bursar’s and might be there quite a
time. If I were you I’d go.
TAPLOW: (doubtfully) He said most particularly I was to
come.
MILLIE: Well, why don’t you run away for a quarter of an
hour and come back? (She unpacks some things
from the basket.)
TAPLOW: Supposing he gets here before me?
MILLIE: (smiling) I’ll take the blame. (She takes a
prescription out of the basket.) I tell you what —
you can do a job for him. Take this prescription to
the chemist and get it made up.
TAPLOW: All right, Mrs Crocker-Harris. (He crosses towards
the door up right.)

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 56 HORNBILL

Understanding the text

1. Comment on the attitude shown by Taplow towards Crocker-Harris.
2. Does Frank seem to encourage Taplow’s comments on Crocker-
Harris?
3. What do you gather about Crocker-Harris from the play?

Talking about the text

Discuss with your partners
1. Talking about teachers among friends.
2. The manner you adopt when you talk about a teacher to other
teachers.
3. Reading plays is more interesting than studying science.

Working with words

A sadist is a person who gets pleasure out of giving pain to others.
Given below are some dictionary definitions of certain kinds of persons.
Find out the words that fit these descriptions.
1. A person who considers it very important that things should be
correct or genuine e.g. in the use of language or in the arts: P...
2. A person who believes that war and violence are wrong and will not
fight in a war: P...
3. A person who believes that nothing really exists: N...
4. A person who is always hopeful and expects the best in all things: O...
5. A person who follows generally accepted norms of behaviour: C...
6. A person who believes that material possessions are all that
matter in life: M...

Things to do
Based on the text enact your own version of the play. Work in pairs.

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THE BROWNING VERSION 57

Notes
After the students have read the play silently by themselves, ask them to
take on the roles of the three characters and read their parts aloud.

Understanding the text

Global comprehension

Talking about the text

• Speaking to each other about something that most students do:
commenting on their teachers (To teachers — take this in a spirit
of good humour)
• Reflecting on how we talk about others in their absence
• Science and Literature: the dichotomy

Working with words

Common terms used for people with particular behaviour patterns or
beliefs, taking off from the text with the word ‘sadist’.

Things to do
Instead of conventional role-play involving reading out or enacting
the original text, students are encouraged to make their own versions
of the play based on the same content (creativity, fun and
authenticity).

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58 HORNBILL

3ix3
yxş e
When did my childhood go?
Was it the day I ceased to be eleven,
Was it the time I realised that Hell and Heaven,
Could not be found in Geography,
And therefore could not be,
Was that the day!

When did my childhood go?

Was it the time I realised that adults were not
all they seemed to be,
They talked of love and preached of love,
But did not act so lovingly,
Was that the day!

When did my childhood go?

Was it when I found my mind was really mine,
To use whichever way I choose,
Producing thoughts that were not those of other people
But my own, and mine alone
Was that the day!

Where did my childhood go?

It went to some forgotten place,
That’s hidden in an infant’s face,
That’s all I know.

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CHILDHOOD 59

Think it out
1. Identify the stanza that talks of each of the following.

individuality rationalism hypocrisy

2. What according to the poem is involved in the process of

growing up?
3. What is the poet’s feeling towards childhood?
4. Which do you think are the most poetic lines? Why?

Notes
Understanding the poem
Questions are based on
• Thematic comprehension
• Reflection on theme
• Poetic sensibility

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 60 HORNBILL

ç. v3e aexe
çç xxişx
Notice these expressions in the text.
Infer their meaning from the context.

 blow-by-blow account  de facto

 morale booster  astute
 relegated to  doctored accounts
 political acumen  gave vent to

THE Jijamata Express sped along the Pune-Bombay* route

considerably faster than the Deccan Queen. There were no
industrial townships outside Pune. The first stop, Lonavala,
came in 40 minutes. The ghat section that followed was no
different from what he knew. The train stopped at Karjat only
briefly and went on at even greater speed. It roared through
Kalyan.
Meanwhile, the racing mind of Professor Gaitonde had arrived
at a plan of action in Bombay. Indeed, as a historian he felt he
should have thought of it sooner. He would go to a big library
and browse through history books. That was the surest way of
finding out how the present state of affairs was reached. He also
planned eventually to return to Pune and have a long talk with
Rajendra Deshpande, who would surely help him understand
what had happened.
That is, assuming that in this world there existed someone
called Rajendra Deshpande!
The train stopped beyond the long tunnel. It was a small
station called Sarhad. An Anglo-Indian in uniform went through
the train checking permits.
The present story is an adapted version. The original text of the story can be
consulted on the NCERT website : www.ncert.nic.in
* Now known as Mumbai

2018-
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THE ADVENTURE 61

“This is where the British Raj begins. You are going for the
first time, I presume?” Khan Sahib asked.
“Yes.” The reply was factually correct. Gangadharpant had
not been to this Bombay before. He ventured a question: “And,
Khan Sahib, how will you go to Peshawar?”
“This train goes to the Victoria Terminus*. I will take the
Frontier Mail tonight out of Central.”
“How far does it go? By what route?”
“Bombay to Delhi, then to Lahore and then Peshawar. A
long journey. I will reach Peshawar the day after tomorrow.”
Thereafter, Khan Sahib spoke a lot about his business and
Gangadharpant was a willing listener. For, in that way, he was
able to get some flavour of life in this India that was so
different.
The train now passed through the suburban rail traffic. The
blue carriages carried the letters, GBMR, on the side.
“Greater Bombay Metropolitan Railway,” explained Khan
Sahib. “See the tiny Union Jack painted on each carriage? A
gentle reminder that we are in British territory.”
The train began to slow down beyond Dadar and stopped
only 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. As he emerged from the station, Gangadharpant
found himself facing an imposing building. The letters on it
proclaimed its identity to those who did not know this Bombay
landmark:
EAST INDIA HOUSE HEADQUARTERS OF
THE EAST INDIA COMPANY

Prepared as he was for many shocks, Professor Gaitonde had

not expected this. The East India Company had been wound up
shortly after the events of 1857 — at least, that is what history
books said. Yet, here it was, not only alive but flourishing. So,
history had taken a different turn, perhaps before 1857. How
and when had it happened? He had to find out.
As he walked along Hornby Road, as it was called, he found
a different set of shops and office buildings. There was no
Handloom House building. Instead, there were Boots and
Woolworth departmental stores, imposing offices of Lloyds,
Barclays and other British banks, as in a typical high street of a
town in England.
* Now known as Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus

2018-
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62 HORNBILL

He turned right along Home Street and entered Forbes

building.
“I wish to meet Mr Vinay Gaitonde, please,” he said to the
English receptionist.
She searched through the telephone list, the staff list and
then through the directory of employees of all the branches of
the firm. She shook her head and said, “I am afraid I can’t find
anyone of that name either here or in any of our branches. Are
you sure he works here?”
This was a blow, not totally unexpected. If he himself were
dead in this world, what guarantee had he that his son would
be alive? Indeed, he may not even have been born!
He thanked the girl politely and came out. It was
characteristic of him not to worry about where he would stay.
His main concern was to make his way to the library of the
Asiatic Society to solve the riddle of history. Grabbing a quick
lunch at a restaurant, he made his way to the Town Hall.

Yes, to his relief, the Town Hall was there, and it did house the
library. He entered the reading room and asked for a list of
history books including his own.
His five volumes duly arrived on his table. He started from
the beginning. Volume one took 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.
Up to this period history was as he knew it. The change
evidently had occurred in the last volume.
Reading volume five from both ends inwards, Gangadharpant
finally converged 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 it handsomely. Abdali was
routed 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 go into a blow-by-blow account of the
battle itself. Rather, it elaborated in detail its consequences for
the power struggle in India. Gangadharpant read through the
account avidly. The style of writing was unmistakably his, yet
he was reading the account for the first time!

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THE ADVENTURE 63

Their victory in the battle was not only a great morale

booster to the Marathas but it also established their
supremacy in northern India. The East India Company, which
had been watching these developments from the sidelines, got
the message and temporarily shelved its expansionist
programme.
For the Peshwas the immediate result was an increase in
the influence of Bhausaheb and Vishwasrao who eventfully
succeeded his father in 1780 A.D. The trouble-maker,
Dadasaheb, was relegated to the background and he
eventually retired from state politics.
To its dismay, the East India Company met its match in
the new Maratha ruler, Vishwasrao. He and his brother,
Madhavrao, combined political acumen with valour and
systematically expanded their influence all over India. The
Company was reduced to pockets of influence near Bombay,
Calcutta* and Madras, just like its European rivals, the
Portuguese and the French.
For political reasons, the Peshwas kept the puppet Mughal
regime alive in Delhi. In the nineteenth century these de facto
rulers from Pune were astute enough to recognise the
importance of the technological age dawning in Europe. They
set up their own centres for science and technology. Here, the
East India Company saw another opportunity to extend its
influence. It offered aid and experts. They were accepted only
to make the local centres self-sufficient.
The twentieth century brought about further changes
inspired by the West. India moved towards a democracy. By
then, the Peshwas had lost their enterprise and they were
gradually replaced by democratically elected bodies. The
Sultanate at Delhi survived even this transition, largely because
it wielded no real influence. The Shahenshah of Delhi was no
more than a figurehead to rubber-stamp the ‘recommendations’
made by the central parliament.
As he read on, Gangadharpant began to appreciate the
India he had seen. It was a country that had not been
subjected to slavery for the white man; it had learnt to stand
on its feet and knew what self-respect was. From a position of
strength and for purely commercial reasons, it had allowed the
British to retain

* Now known as Kolkata

 Now known as Chennai

2018-
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64 HORNBILL

Bombay as the sole outpost 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 witnessing around him.
But, at the same time, he felt that his investigations were
incomplete. How did the Marathas win the battle? To find the
answer he must look for accounts of the battle itself.
He went through the books and journals before him. At
last, among the books he found one that gave him the clue. It
was Bhausahebanchi Bakhar.
Although he seldom relied on the Bakhars for historical
evidence, he found them entertaining to read. Sometimes, buried
in the graphic but doctored accounts, he could spot the germ
of truth. He found one now in a three-line account of how
close Vishwasrao had come to being killed:
... And then Vishwasrao guided his horse to the melee where
the elite troops were fighting and he attacked them. And God
was merciful. A shot brushed past his ear. Even the difference of
a til (sesame) would have led to his death.
At eight o’clock the librarian politely reminded the
professor that the library was closing for the day.
Gangadharpant emerged from his thoughts. Looking around he
noticed that he was the only reader left in that magnificent
hall.
“I beg your pardon, sir! May I request you to keep these
books here for my use tomorrow morning? By the way, when
do you open?”
“At eight o’clock, sir.” The librarian smiled. Here was a user
and researcher right after his heart.
As the professor left the table he shoved some notes into
his right pocket. Absent-mindedly, he also shoved the Bakhar
into his left pocket.

He found a guest house to stay in and had a frugal meal. He

then set out for a stroll towards the Azad Maidan.
In the maidan he found a throng moving towards a pandal.
So, a lecture was to take place. Force of habit took Professor
Gaitonde towards the pandal. The lecture was in progress,
although people kept coming and going. But Professor
Gaitonde was not looking at the audience. He was staring at
the platform

2018-
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THE ADVENTURE 65

as if mesmerised. There was a table and a chair but the latter

was unoccupied.
The presidential chair unoccupied! The sight stirred him to
the depths. Like a piece of iron attracted to a magnet, he
swiftly moved towards the chair.
The speaker stopped in mid-sentence, too shocked to
continue. But the audience soon found voice.
“Vacate the chair!”
“This lecture series has no chairperson...”
“Away from the platform, mister!”
“The chair is symbolic, don’t you know?”
What nonsense! Whoever heard of a public lecture without a
presiding dignitary? Professor Gaitonde went to the mike and
gave vent to his views. “Ladies and gentlemen, an unchaired
lecture is like Shakespeare’s Hamlet without the Prince of
Denmark. Let me tell you...”
But the audience was in no mood to listen. “Tell us nothing.
We are sick of remarks from the chair, of vote of thanks, of
long introductions.”
“We only want to listen to the speaker...”
“We abolished the old customs long ago...”
“Keep the platform empty, please...”
But Gangadharpant had the experience of speaking at 999
meetings and had faced the Pune audience at its most hostile.
He kept on talking.
He soon became a target for a shower of tomatoes, eggs
and other objects. But he kept on trying valiantly to correct
this sacrilege. Finally, the audience swarmed to the stage to
eject him bodily.
And, in the crowd Gangadharpant was nowhere to be seen.

“That is all I have to tell, Rajendra. All I know is that I was

found in the Azad Maidan in the morning. But I was back in the
world I am familiar with. Now, where exactly did I spend those
two days when I was absent from here?”
Rajendra was dumbfounded by the narrative. It took him a
while to reply.
“Professor, before, just prior to your collision with the truck,
what were you doing?” Rajendra asked.

2018-
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66 HORNBILL

“I was thinking of the catastrophe theory and its implications

for history.”
“Right! I thought so!” Rajendra smiled.
“Don’t smile smugly. In case you think that it was just my
mind playing tricks and my imagination running amok, look
at this.”
And, triumphantly, Professor Gaitonde produced his vital
piece of evidence: a page torn out of a book.
Rajendra read the text on the printed page and his face
underwent a change. Gone was the smile and in its place came
a grave expression. He was visibly moved.
Gangadharpant pressed home his advantage. “I had
inadvertently slipped the Bakhar in my pocket as I left the
library. I discovered my error when I was paying for my
meal. I had intended to return it the next morning. But it
seems that in the melee of Azad Maidan, the book was lost;
only this torn-off page remained. And, luckily for me, the page
contains vital evidence.” Rajendra again read the page. It
described how Vishwasrao narrowly missed the bullet; and
how that event, taken as an
omen by the Maratha army, turned the tide in their favour.
“Now look at this.” Gangadharpant produced his own copy
of Bhausahebanchi Bakhar, opened at the relevant page. The
account ran thus:
... And then Vishwasrao guided his horse to the melee where
the elite troops were fighting, and he attacked them. And God
expressed His displeasure. He was hit by the bullet.
“Professor Gaitonde, you have given me food for thought.
Until I saw this material evidence, I had simply put your
experience down to fantasy. But facts can be stranger than
fantasies, as I am beginning to realise.”
“Facts? What are the facts? I am dying to know!” Professor
Gaitonde said.

Rajendra motioned him to silence and started pacing the room,

obviously under great mental strain. Finally, he turned around
and said, “Professor Gaitonde, I will try to rationalise your
experience on the basis of two scientific theories as known today.
Whether I succeed or not in convincing you of the facts, only
you can judge — for you have indeed passed through a
fantastic experience: or, more correctly, a catastrophic
experience!”

2018-
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THE ADVENTURE 67

“Please continue, Rajendra! I am all ears,” Professor Gaitonde

replied. Rajendra continued pacing as he talked.
“You have heard a lot about the catastrophe theory at that
seminar. Let us apply it to the Battle of Panipat. Wars fought
face to face on open grounds offer excellent examples of this
theory. The Maratha army was facing Abdali’s troops on the
field of Panipat. There was no great disparity between the latter’s
troops and the opposing forces. Their armour was comparable.
So, a lot depended on the leadership and the morale of the
troops. The juncture at which Vishwasrao, the son of and heir to
the Peshwa, was killed proved to be the turning point. As
history has it, his uncle, Bhausaheb, rushed into the melee and
was never seen again. Whether he was killed in battle or survived
is not known. But for the troops at that particular moment, that
blow of losing their leaders was crucial. They lost their morale
and fighting spirit. There followed an utter rout.
“Exactly, Professor! And what you have shown me on that
torn page is the course taken by the battle, when the bullet
missed Vishwasrao. A crucial event gone the other way. And its
effect on the troops was also the opposite. It boosted their
morale and provided just that extra impetus that made all the
difference,” Rajendra said.
“Maybe so. Similar statements are made about the Battle
of Waterloo, which Napoleon could have won. But we live in a
unique world which has a unique history. This idea of ‘it might
have been’ is okay for the sake of speculation but not for reality,”
Gangadharpant said.
“I take issue with you there. In fact, that brings me to my
second point which you may find strange; but please hear me
out,” Rajendra said.
Gangadharpant listened expectantly as Rajendra continued.
“What do we mean by reality? We experience it directly with our
senses or indirectly via instruments. But is it limited to what we
see? Does it have other manifestations?
“That reality may not be unique has been found from
experiments on very small systems — of atoms and their
constituent particles. When dealing with such systems the
physicist discovered something startling. The behaviour of these
systems cannot be predicted definitively even if all the physical
laws governing those systems are known.
“Take an example. I fire an electron from a source. Where
will it go? If I fire a bullet from a gun in a given direction at a

2018-
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68 HORNBILL

given speed, I know where it will be at a later time. But I

cannot make such an assertion for the electron. It may be
here, there, anywhere. I can at best quote odds for it being found
in a specified location at a specified time.”
“The lack of determinism in quantum theory! Even an
ignoramus historian like me has heard of it,” Professor
Gaitonde said.
“So, imagine many world pictures. In one world the electron
is found here, in another it is over there. In yet another it is in a
still different location. Once the observer finds where it is, we
know which world we are talking about. But all those alternative
worlds could exist just the same.” Rajendra paused to marshall
his thoughts.
“But is there any contact between those many worlds?”
Professor Gaitonde asked.
“Yes and no! Imagine two worlds, for example. In both an
electron is orbiting the nucleus of an atom...”
“Like planets around the sun...” Gangadharpant interjected.
“Not quite. We know the precise trajectory 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 we have the electron in a state of higher energy. In state
no. 2 it is in a state of lower energy. It can make a jump from
high to low energy and send out a pulse of radiation. Or a pulse
of radiation can knock it out of state no. 2 into state no.1. Such
transitions are common in microscopic systems. What if it
happened on a macroscopic level?” Rajendra said.
“I get you! You are suggesting that I made a transition from
one world to another and back again?” Gangadharpant asked.
“Fantastic though it seems, this is the only explanation I
can offer. My theory is that catastrophic situations offer
radically different alternatives for the world to proceed. It
seems that so far as reality is concerned all alternatives are
viable but the
observer can experience only one of them at a time.
“By making a transition, you were able to experience two
worlds although one at a time. The one you live in now and the
one where you spent two days. One has the history we know,
the other a different history. The separation or bifurcation took
place in the Battle of Panipat. You neither travelled to the past
nor to the future. You were in the present but experiencing a
different world. Of course, by the same token there must be
many more different worlds arising out of bifurcations at
different points of time.”

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THE ADVENTURE 69

As Rajendra concluded, Gangadharpant asked the question

that was beginning to bother him most. “But why did I make
the transition?”
“If I knew the answer I would solve a great problem.
Unfortunately, there are many unsolved questions in science
and this is one of them. But that does not stop me from
guessing.” Rajendra smiled and proceeded, “You need some
interaction to cause a transition. Perhaps, at the time of the
collision you were thinking about the catastrophe theory and its
role in wars. Maybe you were wondering about the Battle of
Panipat. Perhaps, the neurons in your brain acted as a trigger.”
“A good guess. I was indeed wondering what course history
would have taken if the result of the battle had gone the other
way,” Professor Gaitonde said. “That was going to be the topic of
my thousandth presidential address.”
“Now you are in the happy position of recounting your real
life experience rather than just speculating,” Rajendra laughed.
But Gangadharpant was grave.
“No, Rajendra, my thousandth address was made on the
Azad Maidan when I was so rudely interrupted. No. The
Professor Gaitonde who disappeared while defending his chair on
the platform will now never be seen presiding at another
meeting — I have conveyed my regrets to the organisers of the
Panipat seminar.”

Understanding the text

I. Tick the statements that are true.
1. The story is an account of real events.
2. The story hinges on a particular historical event.
3. Rajendra Deshpande was a historian.
4. The places mentioned in the story are all imaginary.
5. The story tries to relate history to science.
II. Briefly explain the following statements from the text.
1. “You neither travelled to the past nor the future. You were in
the present experiencing a different world.”
2. “You have passed through a fantastic experience: or more
correctly, a catastrophic experience.”
3. Gangadharpant could not help comparing the country he
knew with what he was witnessing around him.

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4. “The lack of determinism in quantum theory!”

5. “You need some interaction to cause a transition.”

Talking about the text

1. Discuss the following statements in groups of two pairs, each pair
in a group taking opposite points of view.
(i) A single event may change the course of the history of a nation.
(ii) Reality is what is directly experienced through the senses.
(iii) The methods of inquiry of history, science and philosophy
are similar.
2. (i) The story is called ‘The Adventure’. Compare it with the
adventure described in ‘We’re Not Afraid to Die...’
(ii) Why do you think Professor Gaitonde decided never to preside
over meetings again?

Thinking about language

1. In which language do you think Gangadharpant and Khan Sahib
talked to each other? Which language did Gangadharpant use to
talk to the English receptionist?
2. In which language do you think Bhausahebanchi Bakhar was
written?
3. There is mention of three communities in the story: the
Marathas, the Mughals, the Anglo-Indians. Which language do
you think they used within their communities and while speaking
to the other groups?
4. Do you think that the ruled always adopt the language of the ruler?

Working with words

I. Tick the item that is closest in meaning to the following phrases.
1. to take issue with
(i) to accept
(ii) to discuss
(iii) to disagree
(iv) to add

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THE ADVENTURE 71

2. to give vent to
(i) to express
(ii) to emphasise
(iii) suppress
(iv) dismiss

3. to stand on one’s feet

(i) to be physically strong
(ii) to be independent
(iii) to stand erect
(iv) to be successful

4. to be wound up
(i) to become active
(ii) to stop operating
(iii) to be transformed
(iv) to be destroyed

5. to meet one’s match

(i) to meet a partner who has similar tastes
(ii) to meet an opponent
(iii) to meet someone who is equally able as oneself
(iv) to meet defeat

II. Distinguish between the following pairs of sentences.

1. (i) He was visibly moved.
(ii) He was visually impaired.
2. (i) Green and black stripes were used alternately.
(ii) Green stripes could be used or alternatively black ones.
3. (i) The team played the two matches successfully.
(ii) The team played two matches successively.
4. (i) The librarian spoke respectfully to the learned scholar.
(ii) You will find the historian and the scientist in the
archaeology and natural science sections of the
museum respectively.

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Noticing form
The story deals with unreal and hypothetical conditions. Some of
the sentences used to express this notion are given below:
1. If I fire a bullet from a gun in a given direction at a given speed,
I know where it will be at a later time.
2. If I knew the answer I would solve a great problem.
3. If he himself were dead in this world, what guarantee had he
that his son would be alive.
4. What course would history have taken if the battle had gone the
other way?
Notice that in an unreal condition, it is clearly expected that the
condition will not be fulfilled.

Things to do
I. Read the following passage on the Catastrophe Theory downloaded
from the Internet.
Originated by the French mathematician, Rene Thom, in
the 1960s, catastrophe theory is a special branch of
dynamical systems theory. It studies and classifies
phenomena characterised by sudden shifts in behaviour
arising from small changes in circumstances.
Catastrophes are bifurcations between different
equilibria, or fixed point attractors. Due to their restricted
nature, catastrophes can be classified on the basis of how
many control parameters are being simultaneously varied.
For example, if there are two controls, then one finds the
most common type, called a ‘cusp’ catastrophe. If, however,
there are more than five controls, there is no
classification. Catastrophe theory has been applied to a
number of different phenomena, such as the stability of
ships at sea and their capsizing, bridge collapse, and, with
some less convincing success, the fight-or-flight behaviour
of animals
and prison riots.

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II. Look up the Internet or an encyclopedia for information on the

following theories.
(i) Quantum theory
(ii) Theory of relativity
(iii) Big Bang theory
(iv) Theory of evolution

Notes
Understanding the text
• True/false items to check inferential comprehension
• Explaining statements from the text

Talking about the text

• Discussing approaches of various disciplines to knowledge inquiry
(across the curriculum)
• Cross-text reference

Thinking about language

• Inter-community communication through common languages
• Reference to languages of different disciplines
• Political domination and language imposition (discuss)

Working with words

• Idiomatic expressions
• Distinction between frequently misused word forms:
respectively/ respectfully

Noticing form
Conditional sentences for unreal and hypothetical conditions

Things to do
Finding out about popular scientific theories (real-life reading)

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8. xixş 
iş yixe
Notice these expressions in the text.
Infer their meaning from the context.

 ducking back  swathe  careered down

 manoeuvres  cairn of rocks  salt flats
 billowed

A FLAWLESS half-moon floated in a perfect blue sky on the morning

we said our goodbyes. Extended banks of cloud like long French
loaves glowed pink as the sun emerged to splash the distant
mountain tops with a rose-tinted blush. Now that we were
leaving Ravu, Lhamo said she wanted to give me a farewell
present. One evening I’d told her through Daniel that I was
heading towards Mount Kailash to complete the kora, and she’d
said that I ought to get some warmer clothes. After ducking back
into her tent, she emerged carrying one of the long-sleeved
sheepskin coats that all the men wore. Tsetan sized me up as we
clambered into his car. “Ah, yes,” he declared, “drokba, sir.”
We took a short cut to get off the Changtang. Tsetan knew
a route that would take us south-west, almost directly towards
Mount Kailash. It involved crossing several fairly high mountain
passes, he said. “But no problem, sir”, he assured us, “if there
is no snow.” What was the likelihood of that I asked. “Not
knowing, sir, until we get there.”
From the gently rolling hills of Ravu, the short cut took us
across vast open plains with nothing in them except a few
gazelles

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SILK ROAD 75

Sketch of Mount Kailash

that would look up from nibbling the arid pastures and frown
before bounding away into the void. Further on, where the plains
became more stony than grassy, a great herd of wild ass came
into view. Tsetan told us we were approaching them long before
they appeared. “Kyang,” he said, pointing towards a far-off pall
of dust. When we drew near, I could see the herd galloping en
masse, wheeling and turning in tight formation as if they were
practising manoeuvres on some predetermined course. Plumes
of dust billowed into the crisp, clean air.
As hills started to push up once more from the rocky
wilderness, we passed solitary drokbas tending their flocks.
Sometimes men, sometimes women, these well-wrapped
figures would pause and stare at our car, occasionally waving
as we passed. When the track took us close to their animals,
the sheep would take evasive action, veering away from the
speeding vehicle. We passed nomads’ dark tents pitched in
splendid isolation, usually with a huge black dog, a Tibetan
mastiff, standing guard. These beasts would cock their great big
heads when they became aware of our approach and fix us in
their sights. As we continued to draw closer, they would explode
into action, speeding directly
towards us, like a bullet from a gun and nearly as fast.
These shaggy monsters, blacker than the darkest night,
usually wore bright red collars and barked furiously with
massive jaws. They were completely fearless of our vehicle,
shooting straight into our path, causing Tsetan to brake and
swerve. The

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dog would make chase for a hundred metres or so before

easing off, having seen us off the property. It wasn’t difficult to
understand why ferocious Tibetan mastiffs became popular in
China’s imperial courts as hunting dogs, brought along the Silk
Road in ancient times as tribute from Tibet.
By now we could see snow-capped mountains gathering on
the horizon. We entered a valley where the river was wide and
mostly clogged with ice, brilliant white and glinting in the
sunshine. The trail hugged its bank, twisting with the meanders
as we gradually gained height and the valley sides closed in.
The turns became sharper and the ride bumpier, Tsetan
now in third gear as we continued to climb. The track moved
away from the icy river, labouring through steeper slopes that
sported big rocks daubed with patches of bright orange lichen.
Beneath the rocks, hunks of snow clung on in the near-
permanent shade. I felt the pressure building up in my ears,
held my nose, snorted and cleared them. We struggled round
another tight bend and Tsetan stopped. He had opened his
door and jumped out of his seat before I realised what was
going on. “Snow,” said Daniel as he too exited the vehicle, letting
in a breath of cold air as he did so.
A swathe of the white stuff lay across the track in front of
us, stretching for maybe fifteen metres before it petered out and
the dirt trail reappeared. The snow continued on either side of
us, smoothing the abrupt bank on the upslope side. The bank
was too steep for our vehicle to scale, so there was no way round
the snow patch. I joined Daniel as Tsetan stepped on to the
encrusted snow and began to slither and slide forward, stamping
his foot from time to time to ascertain how sturdy it was. I looked
at my wristwatch. We were at 5,210 metres above sea level.
The snow didn’t look too deep to me, but the danger
wasn’t its depth, Daniel said, so much as its icy top layer. “If we
slip off, the car could turn over,” he suggested, as we saw
Tsetan grab handfuls of dirt and fling them across the frozen
surface. We both pitched in and, when the snow was spread
with soil, Daniel and I stayed out of the vehicle to lighten
Tsetan’s load. He backed up and drove towards the dirty snow,
eased the car on to its icy surface and slowly drove its length
without apparent difficulty. Ten minutes later, we stopped at
another blockage. “Not good, sir,” Tsetan announced as he
jumped out again to survey the scene. This time he decided
to try and drive round the snow.

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SILK ROAD 77

The slope was steep and studded with major rocks, but somehow
Tsetan negotiated them, his four-wheel drive vehicle lurching
from one obstacle to the next. In so doing he cut off one of the
hairpin bends, regaining the trail further up where the snow
had not drifted.
I checked my watch again as we continued to climb in the
bright sunshine. We crept past 5,400 metres and my head
began to throb horribly. I took gulps from my water bottle,
which is supposed to help a rapid ascent.
We finally reached the top of the pass at 5,515 metres. It
was marked by a large cairn of rocks festooned with white silk
scarves and ragged prayer flags. We all took a turn round the
cairn, in a clockwise direction as is the tradition, and Tsetan
checked the tyres on his vehicle. He stopped at the petrol tank
and partially unscrewed the top, which emitted a loud hiss.
The lower atmospheric pressure was allowing the fuel to
expand. It sounded dangerous to me. “Maybe, sir,” Tsetan
laughed “but no smoking.” My headache soon cleared as we
careered down the other side of the pass. It was two o’clock
by the time we stopped for lunch. We ate hot noodles inside a
long canvas tent, part of a workcamp erected beside a dry
salt lake. The plateau is pockmarked with salt flats and
brackish lakes, vestiges of the Tethys Ocean which bordered
Tibet before the great continental collision that lifted it
skyward. This one was a hive of activity, men with pickaxes and
shovels trudging back and forth in their long sheepskin coats
and salt-encrusted boots. All wore sunglasses against the
glare as a steady stream of blue trucks emerged from the
blindingly white lake laden with piles of salt. By late afternoon
we had reached the small town of Hor, back on the main
east-west highway that followed the old trade route from
Lhasa to Kashmir. Daniel, who was returning to Lhasa, found
a ride in a truck so Tsetan and I bade him farewell outside a
tyre-repair shop. We had suffered two punctures in quick
succession on the drive down from the salt lake and Tsetan was
eager to have them fixed since they left him with no spares.
Besides, the second tyre he’d changed had been replaced by
one that was as smooth as my bald head.
Hor was a grim, miserable place. There was no vegetation
whatsoever, just dust and rocks, liberally scattered with years
of accumulated refuse, which was unfortunate given that the
town sat on the shore of Lake Manasarovar, Tibet’s most

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venerated stretch of water. Ancient Hindu and Buddhist

cosmology pinpoints Manasarovar as the source of four great
Indian rivers: the Indus, the Ganges, the Sutlej and the
Brahmaputra. Actually only the Sutlej flows from the lake, but
the headwaters of the others all rise nearby on the flanks of
Mount Kailash. We were within striking distance of the great
mountain and I was eager to forge ahead.
But I had to wait. Tsetan told me to go and drink some tea
in Hor’s only cafe which, like all the other buildings in town,
was constructed from badly painted concrete and had three
broken windows. The good view of the lake through one of
them helped to compensate for the draught.
I was served by a Chinese youth in military uniform who
spread the grease around on my table with a filthy rag before
bringing me a glass and a thermos of tea.
Half an hour later, Tsetan relieved me from my solitary
confinement and we drove past a lot more rocks and rubbish
westwards out of town towards Mount Kailash.
My experience in Hor came as a stark contrast to accounts
I’d read of earlier travellers’ first encounters with Lake
Manasarovar. Ekai Kawaguchi, a Japanese monk who had
arrived there in 1900, was so moved by the sanctity of the lake
that he burst into tears. A couple of years later, the hallowed
waters had a similar effect on Sven Hedin, a Swede who wasn’t
prone to sentimental outbursts.
It was dark by the time we finally left again and after
10.30 p.m. we drew up outside a guest house in Darchen for
what turned out to be another troubled night. Kicking around
in the open-air rubbish dump that passed for the town of Hor
had set off my cold once more, though if truth be told it had
never quite disappeared with my herbal tea. One of my nostrils
was blocked again and as I lay down to sleep, I wasn’t
convinced that the other would provide me with sufficient
oxygen. My watch told me I was at 4,760 metres. It wasn’t
much higher than Ravu, and there I’d been gasping for oxygen
several times every night. I’d grown accustomed to these
nocturnal disturbances by now, but they still scared me.
Tired and hungry, I started breathing through my mouth.
After a while, I switched to single-nostril power which seemed
to be admitting enough oxygen but, just as I was drifting off,
I woke up abruptly. Something was wrong. My chest felt

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SILK ROAD 79

strangely heavy and I sat up, a movement that cleared my

nasal passages almost instantly and relieved the feeling in my
chest. Curious, I thought.
I lay back down and tried again. Same result. I was on the
point of disappearing into the land of nod when something
told me not to. It must have been those emergency electrical
impulses again, but this was not the same as on previous
occasions. This time, I wasn’t gasping for breath, I was simply
not allowed to go to sleep.
Sitting up once more immediately made me feel better. I
could breathe freely and my chest felt fine. But as soon as I lay
down, my sinuses filled and my chest was odd. I tried propping
myself upright against the wall, but now I couldn’t manage to
relax enough to drop off. I couldn’t put my finger on the reason,
but I was afraid to go to sleep. A little voice inside me was
saying that if I did I might never wake up again. So I stayed
awake all night.
Tsetan took me to the Darchen medical college the
following morning. The medical college at Darchen was new
and looked like a monastery from the outside with a very solid
door that led into a large courtyard. We found the consulting
room which was dark and cold and occupied by a Tibetan
doctor who wore none of the paraphernalia that I’d been
expecting. No white coat, he looked like any other Tibetan with
a thick pullover and a woolly hat. When I explained my
sleepless symptoms and my sudden aversion to lying down, he
shot me a few questions while feeling the veins in my wrist.
“It’s a cold,” he said finally through Tsetan. “A cold and the
effects of altitude. I’ll give you something for it.”
I asked him if he thought I’d recover enough to be able to
do the kora. “Oh yes,” he said, “you’ll be fine.”
I walked out of the medical college clutching a brown
envelope stuffed with fifteen screws of paper. I had a five-day
course of Tibetan medicine which I started right away. I
opened an after- breakfast package and found it contained a
brown powder that I had to take with hot water. It tasted just
like cinnamon. The contents of the lunchtime and bedtime
packages were less obviously identifiable. Both contained
small, spherical brown pellets. They looked suspiciously like
sheep dung, but of course I took them. That night, after my
first full day’s course, I slept very soundly. Like a log, not a
dead man.

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80 HORNBILL

Once he saw that I was going to live Tsetan left me, to

return to Lhasa. As a Buddhist, he told me, he knew that it
didn’t really matter if I passed away, but he thought it would
be bad for business.
Darchen didn’t look so horrible after a good night’s sleep. It
was still dusty, partially derelict and punctuated by heaps of
rubble and refuse, but the sun shone brilliantly in a clear blue
sky and the outlook across the plain to the south gave me a
vision of the Himalayas, commanded by a huge, snow-capped
mountain, Gurla Mandhata, with just a wisp of cloud
suspended over its summit.
The town had a couple of rudimentary general stores
selling Chinese cigarettes, soap and other basic provisions, as
well as the usual strings of prayer flags. In front of one, men
gathered in the afternoon for a game of pool, the battered
table looking supremely incongruous in the open air, while
nearby women washed their long hair in the icy water of a
narrow brook that babbled down past my guest house.
Darchen felt relaxed and unhurried but, for me, it came with a
significant drawback. There were no pilgrims.
I’d been told that at the height of the pilgrimage season,
the town was bustling with visitors. Many brought their own
accommodation, enlarging the settlement round its edges as
they set up their tents which spilled down on to the plain. I’d
timed my arrival for the beginning of the season, but it seemed
I was too early.
One afternoon I sat pondering my options over a glass of
tea in Darchen’s only cafe. After a little consideration, I
concluded they were severely limited. Clearly I hadn’t made
much progress with my self-help programme on positive
thinking.
In my defence, it hadn’t been easy with all my sleeping
difficulties, but however I looked at it, I could only wait. The
pilgrimage trail was well-trodden, but I didn’t fancy doing it alone.
The kora was seasonal because parts of the route were liable
to blockage by snow. I had no idea whether or not the snow
had cleared, but I wasn’t encouraged by the chunks of dirty ice
that still clung to the banks of Darchen’s brook. Since Tsetan
had left, I hadn’t come across anyone in Darchen with enough
English to answer even this most basic question.
Until, that is, I met Norbu. The cafe was small, dark and
cavernous, with a long metal stove that ran down the middle.
The walls and ceiling were wreathed in sheets of multi-
coloured

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SILK ROAD 81

plastic, of the striped variety— broad blue, red and white—that is

made into stout, voluminous shopping bags sold all over China,
and in many other countries of Asia as well as Europe. As such,
plastic must rate as one of China’s most successful exports
along the Silk Road today.
The cafe had a single window beside which I’d taken up
position so that I could see the pages of my notebook. I’d also
brought a novel with me to help pass the time.
Norbu saw my book when he came in and asked with a
gesture if he could sit opposite me at my rickety table. “You
English?” he enquired, after he’d ordered tea. I told him I was,
and we struck up a conversation.
I didn’t think he was from those parts because he was wearing
a windcheater and metal-rimmed spectacles of a Western style.
He was Tibetan, he told me, but worked in Beijing at the Chinese
Academy of Social Sciences, in the Institute of Ethnic Literature.
I assumed he was on some sort of fieldwork.
“Yes and no,” he said. “I have come to do the kora.” My heart
jumped. Norbu had been writing academic papers about the
Kailash kora and its importance in various works of Buddhist
literature for many years, he told me, but he had never actually
done it himself.
When the time came for me to tell him what brought me to
Darchen, his eyes lit up. “We could be a team,” he said excitedly.
“Two academics who have escaped from the library.” Perhaps
my positive-thinking strategy was working after all.
My initial relief at meeting Norbu, who was also staying in
the guest house, was tempered by the realisation that he was
almost as ill-equipped as I was for the pilgrimage. He kept
telling me how fat he was and how hard it was going to be.
“Very high up,” he kept reminding me, “so tiresome to walk.”
He wasn’t really a practising Buddhist, it transpired, but he
had enthusiasm and he was, of course, Tibetan.
Although I’d originally envisaged making the trek in the
company of devout believers, on reflection I decided that perhaps
Norbu would turn out to be the ideal companion. He suggested
we hire some yaks to carry our luggage, which I interpreted as
a good sign, and he had no intention of prostrating himself all
round the mountain. “Not possible,” he cried, collapsing across
the table in hysterical laughter. It wasn’t his style, and anyway
his tummy was too big.

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Understanding the text

I. Give reasons for the following statements.
1. The article has been titled ‘Silk Road.’
2. Tibetan mastiffs were popular in China’s imperial courts.
3. The author’s experience at Hor was in stark contrast to earlier
accounts of the place.
4. The author was disappointed with Darchen.
5. The author thought that his positive thinking strategy worked
well after all.

II. Briefly comment on

1. The purpose of the author’s journey to Mount Kailash.
2. The author’s physical condition in Darchen.
3. The author’s meeting with Norbu.
4. Tsetan’s support to the author during the journey.
5. “As a Buddhist, he told me, he knew that it didn’t really
matter if I passed away, but he thought it would be bad for
business.”

Talking about the text

Discuss in groups of four
1. The sensitive behaviour of hill-folk.
2. The reasons why people willingly undergo the travails of difficult
journeys.
3. The accounts of exotic places in legends and the reality.

Thinking about language

1. Notice the kind of English Tsetan uses while talking to the author.
How do you think he picked it up?
2. What do the following utterances indicate?
(i) “I told her, through Daniel …”
(ii) “It’s a cold,” he said finally through Tsetan.

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SILK ROAD 83

3. Guess the meaning of the following words.

kora drokba kyang

In which language are these words found?

Working with words

1. The narrative has many phrases to describe the scenic beauty
of the mountainside like:
A flawless half-moon floated in a perfect blue sky.
Scan the text to locate other such picturesque phrases.
2. Explain the use of the adjectives in the following phrases.
(i) shaggy monsters
(ii) brackish lakes
(iii) rickety table
(iv) hairpin bend
(v) rudimentary general stores

Noticing form
1. The account has only a few passive voice sentences. Locate them.
In what way does the use of active voice contribute to the style of
the narrative.
2. Notice this construction: Tsetan was eager to have them fixed. Write
five sentences with a similar structure.

Things to do
“The plateau is pockmarked with salt flats and brackish lakes, vestiges
of the Tethys Ocean which bordered Tibet before the continental
collision that lifted it skyward.”
Given below is an extract from an account of the Tethys Ocean
downloaded from the Internet. Go online, key in Tethys Ocean in Google
search and you will find exhaustive information on this geological event.
You can also consult an encyclopedia.
Today, India, Indonesia and the Indian Ocean cover the area
once occupied by the Tethys Ocean. Turkey, Iraq, and Tibet sit
on the land once known as Cimmeria. Most of the floor of the
Tethys Ocean disappeared under Cimmeria and Laurasia. We

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84 HORNBILL

only know that Tethys existed because geologists like Suess

have found fossils of ocean creatures in rocks in the Himalayas.
So, we know those rocks were underwater, before the Indian
continental shelf began pushing upward as it smashed into
Cimmeria. We can see similar geologic evidence in Europe,
where the movement of Africa raised the Alps.

Notes
A travelogue presenting a panoramic view of Mt Kailash.

Understanding the text

• Factual comprehension
• Author’s adventurous experiences while scaling the hilly terrain

Talking about the text

• Lifestyle of hill-folk
• Author’s description of exotic places

Thinking about language

• English spoken by guides
• Communicating with strangers
• Guessing the meanings of words from other languages from
the context

Working with words

• Noticing picturesque phrases
• Use of uncommon adjectives

Noticing form
Predominant use of active voice as a contributor to the style of narration

Things to do
Getting information about geological formations from the Internet/
encyclopedia

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SILK ROAD 85

c3ex  x
¥xie3 çei
I do not understand this child
Though we have lived together now
In the same house for years. I know
Nothing of him, so try to build
Up a relationship from how
He was when small. Yet have I killed

The seed I spent or sown it where

The land is his and none of mine?
We speak like strangers, there’s no sign
Of understanding in the air.
This child is built to my design
Yet what he loves I cannot share.

Silence surrounds us. I would have

Him prodigal, returning to
His father’s house, the home he knew,
Rather than see him make and move
His world. I would forgive him too,
Shaping from sorrow a new love.

Father and son, we both must live

On the same globe and the same land,
He speaks: I cannot understand
Myself, why anger grows from grief.
We each put out an empty hand,
Longing for something to forgive.

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86 HORNBILL

Think it out
1. Does the poem talk of an exclusively personal experience or is it
fairly universal?
2. How is the father’s helplessness brought out in the poem?
3. Identify the phrases and lines that indicate distance between
father and son.
4. Does the poem have a consistent rhyme scheme?

Notes
The poem is autobiographical in nature and describes the relationship
between a father and his son.

Understanding the poem

Questions are based on
• the universality of the experience described
• phrases in the poem
• rhyme scheme in the poem

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NOTE-MAKING 87

Note -mahing
Summa-i3ing
Sub-titling
E33ay-w-iting
Lette--w-iting
C-eative U-iting

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88 HORNBILL

I bnow what I want to zaC, bπt I don‘t

bnow how to zaC it.
– a 3tudent

To 6e a6le to rite effeztively the 3tudent need3 to

 under3tand the 3ignifizanze and purpo3e of riting
 develop zoherenze in riting
 under3tand and employ zohe3ive devize3
 have relative zommand of grammar, 3pelling and
punztuation.

2018-
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NOTE-MAKING 89

. ɷ›e~şi,
NOTE-MAKING is an important study skill. It also helps us at work.
We need to draw the main points of the material we read as it
is difficult to remember large chunks of information. Let us
begin with an example.

Study the following passage carefully

Pheasants are shy, charming birds known for their brilliant
plumage. These beautiful birds occupy an important niche
in nature’s scheme of things. Of the 900 bird species and
155 families, the pheasants belong to the order Galliformes
and family Phasinidae. The Galliformes are known as game
birds and this includes, pheasants, partridges, quails,
grouse, francolins, turkeys and megapodes.
There are 51 species of pheasants in the world and
these are shown in the identification chart brought out by
the Environment Society of India (ESI). The purpose of this
chart is to create awareness among members of the school
eco- clubs under the National Green Corps (NGC) of the
Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India.
Except for the Congo Peafowl, all the other pheasants
are from Asia. Scientists believe that all pheasants
originated from the Himalayas, and then scattered into
Tibet, China, Myanmar, South and South East Asian
countries as well as the Caucasus Mountains. The jungle
fowl and the peafowl spread to South India and Sri Lanka
long before the early settlers established themselves in the
Indo-Gangetic plain.
About a third of all the pheasants in the world are found
in India. The male blue peafowl (the peacock) is the best
known member of the pheasant family and is India’s national
bird. It occupies a prominent place in India’s art, culture
and folklore.

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 90 HORNBILL

STEP 1
Notice that the important information has been underlined.
Pheasants are shy, charming birds known for their brilliant
plumage. These beautiful birds occupy an important niche
in nature’s scheme of things. Of the 900 bird species and
155 families, the pheasants belong to the order Galliformes
and family Phasinidae. The Galliformes are known as game
birds and this includes, pheasants, partridges, quails,
grouse, francolins, turkeys and megapodes.
There are 51 species of pheasants in the world and
these are shown in the identification chart brought out by
the Environment Society of India (ESI). The purpose of this
chart is to create awareness among members of the school
eco- clubs under the National Green Corps (NGC) of the
Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India.
Except for the Congo Peafowl, all the other pheasants
are from Asia. Scientists believe that all pheasants
originated from the Himalayas, and then scattered into
Tibet, China, Myanmar, South and South East Asian
countries as well as the Caucasus Mountains. The jungle
fowl and the peafowl spread to South India and Sri Lanka
long before the early settlers established themselves in the
Indo-Gangetic plain.
About a third of all the pheasants in the world are found
in India. The male blue peafowl (the peacock) is the best
known member of the pheasant family and is India’s national
bird. It occupies a prominent place in India’s art, culture
and folklore.

STEP 2
Read the passage again asking yourself questions and
answering them as you read.
• What is the passage about? — Pheasants
• Where found? — Asia; particularly India (1/3 of total population)
• Origin? — Himalayas
• Time? — Long before Indo-Gangetic plain settlements.
• Which group of birds? — Order: Galliformes (game birds);
Family — Phasinidae

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 NOTE-MAKING 91

• How many species? — 51

• What is the source of information? — ESI chart
• What is the purpose of the ESI chart? — Create awareness
among school eco-clubs under NGC
• Which is the best known member? — Peacock, India’s
national bird

STEP 3

With the help of the answers note down the main points. Write
the points without full forms of the verbs.
• Pheasants — shy birds with bright plumage found largely in
Asia, especially India
• Origin in the Himalayas and spread in China, Myanmar,
South and SE Asia.
• Order: Galliformes — game birds; Family: Phasinidae
• No. of species: 51 (ESI chart)
• Purpose of ESI chart — Creating awareness among school
eco-clubs under NGC.
• Peacock — India’s national bird, member of this family,
represented in Indian art, culture and folklore.

Notice

• Two or three related ideas can be combined into one point.

• Use of colons
• Use of the long dash

STEP 4

Now go over the facts and number them.

• This is only to analyse the process of note-making. With
practice you will be able to reach Step 4 immediately, going
through Steps 2 and 3 mentally.

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 92 HORNBILL

STEP 5
Finally we go over the facts and number them again.
Read carefully the characteristics of good notes which are given
below.
1. (i) Notes should be short. They should identify the main
point.
(ii) They list information in what is called ‘note form’.
(iii) They are written only in phrases; not sentences.
2. (i) Information is logically divided and subdivided by the
use of figures/letters.
(ii) The divisions are made like this:
Main sections : 1, 2, 3, etc.
Sub-sections : (i), (ii), (iii), etc.
Sub-sub-sections : (a), (b), (c), etc.
3. Another common method is the ‘decimal’
system. Main sections : 1, 2, 3, etc.
Sub-sections : 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, etc.
Sub-sub-sections : 1.1.1, 1.1.2, 1.1.3, 1.2.1,
1.2.2, etc.
4. Abbreviations and symbols are freely used. Articles,
prepositions and conjunctions are omitted.
5. Notes must make sense when they are read again otherwise
they will be of no use.

Now read the following text.

The energy stored in coal and petroleum originally came to the
earth from the sun. The bulk of the present-day supplies was
laid down some 200 to 600 million years ago, when tropical
conditions were widespread. Lush, swampy forests produced
huge trees; warm coastal seas swarmed with microscopic
forms of life. When these organisms died, much of their
tissue was recycled as it is today — through scavenging and
decay. But a significant amount of dead plant and animal
material was covered with mud, which prevented complete
decomposition.

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NOTE-MAKING 93

With the passage of time, layer upon layer of the fine

sediment was deposited over the once-living material; the
sheer weight turned the sediments to rock. Sandwiched
between the layers, both coal and petroleum were produced
and preserved under pressure. Coal was formed mostly of
giant fern-like plants that have only small counterparts
today. Coal may still be forming here and there on earth,
but conditions are not right for the production of
significant quantities.

1. Underline the important words and phrases.

2. Write down points without fully expanded verbs,
numbering them as you do.
3. Combine related points.
4. Group related points.
5. Change the verbs to nouns and begin points with them.
6. Number the points.

After you have finished check with the notes given below.
•••Storage of energy from sun in coal and petroleum
••••• Deposit of bulk of supplies 200 – 600 million years ago

••••• Teeming life in tropical conditions

••••• Death of life forms, leading to recycling through decay

••••• Prevention of total decomposition by considerable

dead plants, animals being covered with mud

••••• Solidification of sediment leading to rock-

formation over time

••••• Production of coal, petroleum by compression of

organic matter between rocks

••••• Unsuitability of present-day conditions for coal-formation

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 94 HORNBILL

¥. xxii
SUMMARISING follows note-making. The purpose of note-making
is usually for one’s own personal reference. If the main points
are to be reported we present a summary. It is not as severely
shortened as note-making.
Summarising is the selection and paraphrasing of all
important information of the original source. This is done by
analysing the paragraphs/passage in order to formulate a plan
of writing.
The process of summarising would involve the steps followed
in note-making:
1. underlining important ideas
2. writing them down, abridging the verbs
3. avoiding examples, explanations, repetition.
However, instead of nominalising the points (changing
verbs into nouns), we expand the points into full sentences
and link them using suitable connectors. We need to be
precise in our expression. The summary will contain all the
main ideas of the original. Practice in using one word for
many will help.
For example:
• Children who show intelligence far beyond their age often
turn out to be mediocre in adult life.
or
Precocious children often turn out to be mediocre in
adult life.

• Her genius was marked by excellence in the various arts,

languages and science.
or
She was a versatile genius.

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SUMMARISING 95

Now read the following text underlining important words as you

go along.
Soybeans belong to the legume family. The beans are the
seeds of the leguminous soybean plant. They can be grown
on a variety of soils and in a wide range of climates.
Soybeans are versatile as they can be used as whole beans,
soy sprouts, or processed as a variety of food items, such as
soy milk, tofu, tempeh, textured vegetable protein, miso,
soy sauce, soy oil and margarine, and soy dairy alternatives.
They are also used for making candles and bio-diesel.
Soy is an excellent source of high quality protein; is
low in saturated fats and is cholestrol-free. It is also rich
in vitamins, especially Vitamin B complex, minerals such
as magnesium, calcium, iron, potassium and copper and
also fibres. In recent times it has been highly
recommended because of its ability to lower the levels of
Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL), a bad cholesterol. The
Food and Drug Administration (FDA), has confirmed that
foods containing soy protein are likely to reduce the risk
of coronary heart disease.
An easy way to take soy is as soymilk now available with
added flavour. Soymilk does not contain lactose (milk
sugar) and can be drunk by those who are allergic to
normal milk. To get soymilk, soybeans are soaked in water,
ground and then strained. If you don’t mind the trouble,
you can also make it at home. (225 words).
Now note down the important points.
• Soybeans are the seeds of the soybean plant of the legume
family.
• They grow in a variety of soils and climates.
• They can be used in various forms — beans, sprouts and a
variety of food items.
• They are also used to make candles and bio-diesel.
• They are a source of high quality protein, vitamins, minerals
and fibres. They are low in fat content and cholesterol. They
can lower LDL levels and reduces risk of coronary heart
disease.
• Soymilk, lactose-free, is available as flavoured milk and can
be drunk by those allergic to ordinary milk and can also be

2018-
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 96 HORNBILL

made at home by soaking the beans, grinding them and

straining the water. (111 words)
A summary is usually one-third the length of the original passage.
This is about half.
Now think of what we can omit to make the summary more brief as
shown below.
The soybean leguminous plant which grows in all kinds of soil
and climate yields beans, sprouts and a variety of
processed food items and dairy alternatives and is also
used to make candles and bio-diesel.
Rich in protein, vitamins, minerals and fibres, it has a
low fat and cholesterol content. It lowers LDL levels and
reduces the risk of coronary heart disease.
Soymilk which is lactose-free is available as flavoured
milk and agrees with people allergic to ordinary milk. It
can be made at home by soaking, grinding and straining
soybean. (90 words)

Try reducing it further to about 72 words.

Soybean, a legume, growing in a variety of soil and climatic
conditions, yields beans, sprouts and a variety of food
items and is used in making candles and bio-diesel.
Rich in protein, vitamins, minerals and fibres, it is low in
cholesterol and fat. It lowers LDL levels and reduces the risk
of coronary heart disease. Soymilk, lactose-free, is available
flavoured and taken by people allergic to milk. It can also
be made at home. (74 words)
Notice that we have phrases in apposition: ‘a legume’, between
commas; present participles: ‘growing’ to effect reduction.
Instead of ‘it is rich in…’ we have used ‘rich in…’ and postponed
the main verb in the sentence. Almost all the main points have
been covered.

Read the text below and summarise it.

Green Sahara
The Great Desert Where Hippos Once Wallowed
The Sahara sets a standard for dry land. It’s the world’s largest
desert. Relative humidity can drop into the low single
digits. There are places where it rains only about once a

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SUMMARISING 97

century. There are people who reach the end of their lives
without ever seeing water come from the sky.
Yet beneath the Sahara are vast aquifers of fresh water,
enough liquid to fill a small sea. It is fossil water, a treasure
laid down in prehistoric times, some of it possibly a million
years old. Just 6,000 years ago, the Sahara was a much
different place.
It was green. Prehistoric rock art in the Sahara shows
something surprising: hippopotamuses, which need
year-round water.
“We don’t have much evidence of a tropical paradise
out there, but we had something perfectly liveable,” says
Jennifer Smith, a geologist at Washington University in St
Louis.
The green Sahara was the product of the migration of
the paleo-monsoon. In the same way that ice ages come
and go, so too do monsoons migrate north and south. The
dynamics of earth’s motion are responsible. The tilt of the
earth’s axis varies in a regular cycle — sometimes the
planet is more tilted towards the sun, sometimes less so.
The axis also wobbles like a spinning top. The date of the
earth’s perihelion — its closest approach to the sun —
varies in a cycle as well.
At times when the Northern Hemisphere tilts sharply
towards the sun and the planet makes its closest approach,
the increased blast of sunlight during the north’s summer
months can cause the African monsoon (which currently
occurs between the Equator and roughly 17 0N latitude) to
shift to the north as it did 10,000 years ago, inundating
North Africa.
Around 5,000 years ago the monsoon shifted
dramatically southward again. The prehistoric inhabitants
of the Sahara discovered that their relatively green
surroundings were undergoing something worse than a
drought (and perhaps they migrated towards the Nile Valley,
where Egyptian culture began to flourish at around the same
time).
“We’re learning, and only in recent years, that some
climate changes in the past have been as rapid as anything
underway today,” says Robert Giegengack, a University of
Pennsylvania geologist.
As the land dried out and vegetation decreased, the soil
lost its ability to hold water when it did rain. Fewer clouds

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98 HORNBILL

formed from evaporation. When it rained, the water washed

away and evaporated quickly. There was a kind of runaway
drying effect. By 4,000 years ago the Sahara had become
what it is today.
No one knows how human-driven climate change may
alter the Sahara in the future. It’s something scientists
can ponder while sipping bottled fossil water pumped
from underground.
“It’s the best water in Egypt,” Giegengack said — clean,
refreshing mineral water. If you want to drink something
good, try the ancient buried treasure of the Sahara.

JOEL ACHENBACK
Staff Writer, Washington Post

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SUB-TITLING 99

ş. xixi
THE purpose of sub-titling is to convey the main idea or theme
of each section of a long piece of writing. It helps the reader know
at a glance the sub-topics that are being addressed. Giving
suitable sub-titles helps break the monotony of reading long
passages.

Read the newspaper article given below and do the tasks

that follow.

A new deal for old cities

The example of Curitiba in Brazil, which has attracted
global attention for innovative urban plans using low-cost
technologies, shows that inclusive development models
for urban renewal are workable.

M
any cities in India accurately ignored fundamental public health
mirror Friedrich Engels’ issues inherited from colonial rule.
description of urban centres in There is little evidence to show that
nineteenth century England even policymakers assimilated the lessons
today. “Streets that are generally from the Surat public health
unpaved, rough, dirty, filled with disaster. State and municipal
vegetable and animal refuse, without governments did not pursue reform
sewers or gutters but supplied with in waste management, though civic
foul, stagnant pools instead,” wrote conditions in Surat itself underwent
Engels on the living conditions of change in the plague aftermath.
the working class in that country. During the past decade, many cities
Urban Decay pursued development agendas—often
with the help of massive international
The depths of urban decay in India loans—to project ‘modernisation’ at
came to global notice during the the cost of basic civic reform.
pneumonic plague of 1994 in Surat; it There is thus a continuing
epitomised the failure of governments challenge before the current mission
in the post-Independence era and to enable and also compel local
exposed development policies that governments to abide by the

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100 HORNBILL

provisions of the Municipal Solid It comes as no surprise therefore

Waste Management Rules by which that pedestrians and bicycle riders,
they are legally bound. who form 30 to 70 per cent of peak
Post-liberalisation policies have hour traffic in most urban centres,
tended to largely disregard other also make up a large proportion of
key factors that affect the quality of fatalities in road accidents. A paper
life in cities and towns: poverty, lack prepared by the Transport Research
of sanitation, water shortages, and Injury Prevention Programme
gross undersupply of affordable (TRIPP) of the Indian Institute of
housing, and traffic chaos Technology, Delhi, says pedestrian
generated by automobile fatalities in Mumbai and Delhi were
dependence, in turn created by nearly 78 per cent and 53 per cent
neglect of public transport. In the of the total, according to recent
absence of a hygienic data, compared to 13 per cent and
environment and safe water supply, 12 per cent in Germany and the
chronic water-borne diseases such United States.
as cholera and other communicable Such alarming death rates — and
diseases continue to stalk the poor an equally high injury rate — should
in the biggest cities. persuade policymakers to revisit
It must be sobering to the their urban planning strategies and
affluent layers of the population correct the distortions. But many
that nearly cities such as Chennai have actually
14 million Indian households done the reverse — reduced
(forming 26 per cent of the total) in footpaths and areas for pedestrian
the urban areas do not have a latrine use to facilitate unrestricted use of
within the house, as per the Census motorised vehicles.
of India 2001; some 14 per cent have The practice in progressive world
only rudimentary ‘pit’ facilities. The cities has been different. Curitiba in
number of households without a Brazil, which has attracted global
drainage connection stands at 11.8 attention for innovative urban plans
million (representing 22.1 per cent using low-cost technologies, has
of households). Migration to cities done everything that Indian
continues and infrastructure to treat policymakers would dread to do.
sewage is grossly inadequate to meet Starting in the 1970s, this provincial
the demand even where it exists. centre with the highest per capita
It is unlikely that the quality of ownership of cars in Brazil (other
the urban environment can be than the capital) at the time,
dramatically improved therefore, if banned automobiles from many
such fundamental questions remain crowded areas in favour of
unresolved. pedestrians, built an internationally
Urban transport receives scant acknowledged bus system that
attention from policymakers. Policy reduced household commuting
distortions have led to rising expenditure to below the national
automobile dependency, higher average, and created new housing
safety risks for road users, and land areas that were provided transport
use plans that are based not on the links in a planned manner. Some of
needs of people, but primarily the prestigious land
designed to facilitate use of private development in the city, including a
motorised vehicles.

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SUB-TITLING 101

new Opera House, came up in policies that, ironically, allow filling

abandoned sites such as quarries. of existing wetlands by real estate
The bus-way system cut riding lobbies, leading to flooding. The
time by a third, Scientific American residents then demand expensive
noted in a review in the mid-1990s, new storm water drains.
by providing for advance ticketing, Examples such as Curitiba show
specially-designed boarding areas that inclusive development models
with wider doors for entry/exit and for urban renewal are workable. If
dedicated lanes for faster transit. only the state and local governments
In another low-cost initiative, can be persuaded to adopt a rights-
Curitiba managed floods with a based approach to affordable
dedication that Mumbai, Bangalore, housing, sanitation, water supply,
and Chennai can only marvel at. The mobility and a clean environment,
city created large artificial lakes in instead of a market-oriented model
suitable places that filled up in the that lays excessive emphasis on
monsoon, avoiding flooding of recovery of costs incurred by profit-
residential areas. In the summer, oriented private sector service
these lakes turned into parks to provision. Support from a
provide recreational spaces. progressive middle class and trade
State administrations and urban unions is equally critical to bring
planning bodies in India follow about genuine urban renewal.
G. ANANTHAKRISHNAN
The Hindu, 13 December 2005

Activity
1. Notice the italicised sentence placed at the top of the
article which tells us at a glance what the article is about.
2. Divide the article into four sections based on the shifts in
the sub-topics and give a suitable sub-heading for each
section. One has been done for you in the article as an
example.
3. Look for pictures in newspapers and magazines that depict
the urban civic problems discussed in the text. Cut them
out and pin them to the text at appropriate places.

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102 HORNBILL

4. Essay-writing
MOST of us find it difficult to begin writing. We can make this
easier by thinking about the topic either through
brainstorming, that is with several people in a group giving
their ideas as they strike them, or by putting them down on
a sheet of paper as they occur to us.
For example, if the topic is ‘Hobbies’, we can draw a circle
and write ‘hobbies’ in it:

Then we can put down our thoughts as they come to us in a

random manner as shown below.

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ESSAY-WRITING 103

Having done that we select the points and expand each into a
sentence.
1. Hobbies are free-time activities. Examples are stamp-
collecting, painting etc.
2. They are matters of personal choice, not forced.
3. They are interesting and give pleasure.
4. They refresh the mind by providing an opportunity to do
different kinds of activities.
5. They provide relief from monotony.
6. They help us channelise our energy.
7. They can also be useful activities and can provide pleasure
to others. For example, reading out to visually impaired
people, visiting art exhibitions, music concerts etc.
8. Hobbies are educative and they widen our general
knowledge.
9. They help us develop our overall personality.
10. They serve as a medium for the expression of our creativity.
11. We meet interesting people through our common
interests and develop friendships.
We usually begin a topic with a definition or short description.
We could begin thus:
Hobbies are activities that we engage in, in our free
time. We may be interested in needlework, drawing and
painting or music. Other common hobbies are stamp-
collecting, clay-modelling, solving crossword puzzles.
Although hobbies also entail work they are taken upon
through one’s own personal choice. They are not forced
upon us. They are activities that we are really interested
in and hence give us a great deal of pleasure.
Hobbies make life interesting. They refresh our
minds after a hard day’s work. We need to do something
different in order to do our routine work effectively.
Hobbies provide this variety.
Hobbies relieve us from the monotony of daily life.
They fill us with enthusiasm for work and keep our energy
levels high. We will go to any extent to get the things that
we require, to get the utmost joy from our hobbies.

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104 HORNBILL

Hobbies are also useful activities. Quite a few hobbies,

like stamp-collecting, widen our general knowledge about
various countries of the world. When we share common
interests we even get into correspondence with people of
other countries.

This is how we write an essay.

A composition on a particular subject consisting of more than
one paragraph is an essay. The characteristics of a good
essay are:
Unity : The essay should deal with the main subject, and
all parts of it should be clearly linked with that
subject.
Coherence : There should be a logical sequence of thought. This
requires a logical relationship between ideas,
sentences and paragraphs.
Relevance : Unimportant information should not be included.
Proportion: Giving more space to the important ideas.

Read the following essay and the passage analysis that follows
it carefully.

The Importance of Games

1. “The Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of
Eton.” These words have been attributed to the Duke of
Wellington. Certainly one does not play games in order to
win battles; neither does the curriculum include them for
that reason. But the importance of games in life should
not be underestimated, for without them it is harder for a
person to be sound in body and mind.
2. For one thing, if a person is to fulfil all the duties that
society expects of him, it is important for him to keep
healthy. He may be very intelligent, but that has little
meaning if he cannot make use of his intelligence, because
he is always suffering from bad health. In some ways, the
human body is like a machine. If it is not made use of, it
starts to work badly. People who are not fit grow weak and
become more susceptible to disease. Any form of game is
useful, provided it gives the body an opportunity to take
regular physical exercise.

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ESSAY-WRITING 105

3. Secondly, playing — and therefore experiencing winning

and losing — encourages the spirit of sportsmanship, thus
enabling one to deal with life’s problems in a wise and
natural manner. Games teach the truth embodied in the
Olympic motto: ‘The important thing in playing is not the
winning or the losing, but the participation’ — and, I may
add, doing the best one can.
4. We have to remember some other things about playing
games, however. First, it is the physical exercise that is
important for health, not the games themselves, and there
are other ways of getting this. Is not India the home of yoga?
It is also possible to be too interested in games. When we
think of the Greek ideal expressed in the Latin phrase, ‘mens
sana in corpore sano’ (a healthy mind in a healthy body), we
should not forget that it is the mind which is mentioned
first. And if we let games become the most important thing
in our lives, we may be in danger of changing the Olympic
motto to ‘the important thing is winning’.
5. Nevertheless, in spite of these dangers, playing games can
be a valuable activity, and if we take part in them wisely, we
can gain great benefits.

Passage Analysis
• The writer uses five paragraphs
• Each paragraph deals sequentially with a topic.
– Paragraph 1 introduces the subject, and makes a general
statement about the importance of games.
– Paragraph 2 explains the benefits of playing games.
– Paragraph 3 deals with the moral benefits.
– Paragraph 4 deals with the disadvantages and dangers.
– Paragraph 5 sums up the writer’s opinion, taking into
account all he has said in paragraphs 2, 3 and 4, i.e. it
forms the conclusion. The structure (or plan) of the essay
is summed up in the following flow diagram.

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 106 HORNBILL

Activity
Here are a few topics for essay writing. Follow the steps listed
above to write on these topics.
1. Himalayan quake 2005.
2. Those who can bear all can dare all.
3. Fascinating facts about water.
4. Public health in transition.
5. Human population grows up.
6. Success begins in the mind.
7. Think before you shop.
The trend of decline in the Child Sex Ratio (CSR)
defined as the number of girls per 1000 boys between 0–6
years of age, has remained unabated till today. To ensure
survival, protection and empowerment of the girl child,
the government has announced Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao
scheme. This is being implemented through a national
campaign. The objectives of this scheme are:
• Prevention of gender-biased sex selection elimination.
• Ensuring survival and protection of the girl child.
• Ensuring education and participation of the girl child.
Organise as essay writing activity in your class, the
themes should be based on the objectives stated above.
Mention how you can contribute to this programme, in the
essay.

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LETTER-WRITING 107

. eexxii
LETTER-WRITING is an important channel of communication
between people who are geographically distant from one
another. In earlier times when the telephone and e-mail were
not available, the only means of communication between people
was through letters.
Letter-writing is a skill that has to be developed. In general
there are two types of letters: formal, that are written to convey
official business and information and informal, which are
personal letters to communicate with friends and family. Formal
letters are sent out when we need to write to various public
bodies or agencies for our requirements in civic life. For example,
we might have to ask for a certificate or to inform a change in
our address. A letter is usually one in a series of exchanges
between two people or parties.

Formal Letters
Let us now examine some of the steps in writing formal letters.
1. (i) Introducing oneself if it is the first time you are writing
(ii) Referring to an earlier letter if you are responding to it.
2. Stating the purpose of the letter
3. (i) Stating action/information required from the addressee
(ii) Explaining action taken/supplying information
4. (i) Urging action to be taken
(ii) Offering assistance in future
This is the basic structure of a letter. It will have to be
modified according to the purpose for which it is written and
the person to whom it is addressed.

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When you write a letter you should keep in mind the following points.
1. Purpose
2. Person to whom it is addressed
3. Tone you should adopt
4. Completeness of the message
5. Action required
6. Conciseness of expression

We have so far considered the content of letters. A letter also has

a typical format.
1. Name and address of sender
Companies have printed letterheads with the name of the
company printed on them. A letterhead may also carry the
name and designation of persons in responsible positions.
2. Name and address of addressee
3. Date
4. Mode of address or salutation
Salutation is the mode of addressing a person. We may have
the following forms.
(i) Dear Sir/Madam (when we are writing to a total stranger
whom we do not know at all).
(ii) Dear Mr/Ms/Dr/Professor + Surname as in: Dear Dr
Sinha, (when it is a formal relationship with the
addressee and the writer does not know him or her
personally).
(iii) Dear Sujata (when the writer knows the addressee
personally and the two share a semi-formal relationship).
5. Reference to previous correspondence, if any.
Most official letters carry a subject line just above the
salutation. This is for quick reference to the subject.
6. Content of letter
The content of the letter begins on the next line and is
arranged in two or three paragraphs.
7. Complimentary close and signature
Letters usually end politely with the following phrases:
Thank you, With regards, With best wishes, Hope to see

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you soon, Hope to receive an early reply etc. The

complimentary close is followed by ‘Yours sincerely/ Yours
truly’, and the writer’s signature in the next line.

Given below is an example of the format of a formal letter.

Ritu Patel
Manager, Customer Services
Vijayanagar Gas Company
121, Ameerpet
Hyderabad 500 016
12 November 2005

Mr Shagun Thomas
801, Vijay Apartments
Begumpet
Hyderabad 500 016

Sub: Your application No. F323 for a new gas connection

Dear Mr Thomas,
——————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————

With regards,
Yours sincerely,
Ritu Patel

Nowadays all the parts of a letter are aligned on the left. This
style is called the Full-Block style.
• The date and signature are very important in letters.
• We do not use commas after every line in the address.

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• Do not begin your letters with hackneyed expressions like,

‘With reference to your letter dated 10 January’. Instead,
use personalised variations like, ‘I was glad to receive your
letter of 10 January…’ or ‘We were happy to note from your
letter that the goods have reached you safely…’
• Never end your letters with hanging participles like ‘Thanking
you’ or ‘Awaiting your reply’. Instead write, ‘Thank you’ or
‘We/I await/look forward to your reply’.

Informal Letters
Informal letters include personal letters. If it is a personal letter
the format is flexible. We might just write the name of our city on
top, followed by the date.

Hyderabad
12 November 2005

Dear Sujata,

——————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————

Bye,
Yours affectionately/With love/ All
the best/Take care etc.

(Signature)

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The flexible format of the informal letter may also be used to

seek information from concerned authorities. Given below is
an example.

179 NCERT Campus

Sri Aurobindo Marg
New Delhi 110 016

9 September 2005

The Manager
Himachal Tourism
Mall Road
Shimla

Dear Sir,

We are planning to spend our vacation in Dharamsala,

Himachal Pradesh during Dussehra and would like some
information regarding availability of lodging in the area.
We would like to have information about inexpensive
hotels in and around Dharamsala. Could you please
send me a city map and brochures about the activities
and sights in the city?
Thank you.

Yours faithfully,

(Suryadhan Kumar)

Given below is the format of the informal letter.

• Your address (but not your name) usually goes in the top right-
hand corner, but may go on the left too.
• The name and/or job title (if you know them) and the address
of the person you are writing to goes on the left.

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• To address someone whose name you do not know you

can write: Dear Sir, Dear Madam, Dear Sirs, Dear
Sir/Madam.
• To address someone by name, use their title and surname
e.g. Dear Dr Balakrishnan.
• To end a letter, use ‘Yours sincerely’, if you have addressed
the person by name; ‘Yours faithfully’, if you have begun
the letter with ‘Dear Sir’ or ‘Madam’, etc.

Job Application
At some point of time each one of us will have to apply for a job.
Job applications are usually written in response to
advertisements.
Let us take this sample advertisement from a daily newspaper,
The Hindu dated 15 November 2005.

Come…join the ADVENTURE

Customer Support Executives
Graduate/Diploma holders
with/without experience
possessing good Customer
Service skills. Excellent spoken
and written communication
skills in English is a must.
Send in your applications with
your resume and passport
size photograph to:
WONDERLAND
COMMUNICATIONS,
SOUTH STREET, SALEM,
TAMIL NADU

Let us assume that you have a degree or a diploma and are

applying for the job. We need to prepare a resume, which actually
means a summary of particulars relating to your background,
academic qualifications and experience, if any. Other terms
used for ‘resume’ are ‘curriculum vitae’ and ‘biodata’.

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The general format of a resume or curriculum vitae is

shown below.

CURRICULUM VITAE

Name :
Address :
Telephone Number :
E-mail ID :
Date of birth :
Academic Qualifications :

Examination Board/ Subjects Year Division

University
S.S.C
Diploma in…
Degree in…

Experience : (Begin from present

employment)
Skills :
Languages known :
Hobbies and Interests :
Achievements :
References : (names of people in positions
like your school Prinicipal who
can certify your character and
conduct)

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Now we need to send a covering letter along with the curriculum

vitae. The following letter is an example.

Your name and address

Date

The Manager
Human Resource Division
Wonderland Communications
South Street, Salem
Tamil Nadu

Dear Sir,
I would like to apply for the post of Customer Support
Executive that you have advertised in The Hindu of 15
November 2005.
I have just completed my Diploma in
Communication from the State Polytechnic. I was happy
to note that you do not insist on experience.
If selected, this would be my first job. I am a sincere,
honest and hardworking person. I am friendly and
outgoing and have good communication skills.
I am enclosing my resume and look forward to
meeting you in person.
Regards,
Yours truly,

(Signature)

Activities
1. You have not received your Roll Number card for the Class
XII examination. Write a letter to the Registrar, Examination
Branch, CBSE asking for it.

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2. Write a letter to the President, Residents’ Welfare Association of

your locality suggesting some measures that could be taken
for solving the problem of water scarcity and conserving
water.
3. Write a letter to the editor of a newspaper expressing your
views on the deteriorating law and order situation in your
city.
4. Write a letter to your friend narrating your experiences in a
rescue operation.
5. Write a letter to the Editor of a magazine describing a dance
performance you have seen or an art gallery you have visited.

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d. xeie xii
THE teacher was explaining the lines in the beginning of
Shakespeare’s play Macbeth. It was a description of the battle
and the lines were:
Like Valour’s minion, carved out his passage,
Till he faced the slave;
With ne’er shook hands, nor baded farewell to him.
Till he unseam’d him from the nave to the chaps,…
The teacher asked the students what the word ‘unseamed’
meant. It was difficult. The teacher prodded them on. “What
does ‘seam’ mean? Haven’t you ever come across the word?”
One of the students blurted out “Cricket ball”.
This is an example of how each of us reacts to words
according to what our own experience has been.
When we write about factual information, all of us write
almost similarly. But when we write for pleasure each of us
may write about the same event in different ways.
One very important element in creative writing is imagination.
This is reflected in
• our view or perspective
• choice of words
• the comparisons we make
• the images we use
• the tone we adopt
• novelty of ideas.

Let us study the paragraph below.

A town is like an animal. A town has a nervous system and
a head and shoulders and feet. A town is a thing separate
from all other towns, so that there are no towns alike. And
a town has a whole emotion. How news travels through a
town

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is a mystery not easily to be solved. News seems to move

faster than small boys can scramble and dart to tell it, faster
than women can call it over the fences. (from an adapted
version of Steinbeck’s The Pearl)
The topic: A Town
Analogy or comparison: to an animal
Word choice: “has a whole emotion.”
Comparisons: “faster than small boys can scramble and dart,
faster than women….”
We find the first element of imagination operating in the way the
writer visualises the town. Then he extends the primary
analogy. The tone he adopts is light humour, a little sarcastic.
When we begin to write a story or poem we let our
imagination free. We try to say things in a new way. This
novelty is what makes our writing pleasurable to the reader.
Sometimes sentence structures are also different from factual
writing. Consider the following:
They waited in their chairs until the pearls came in, and
then they cackled and fought and shouted and threatened
until they reached the lowest price the fisherman would
stand. (from The Pearl).
In a normal construction we will not use so many ‘ands’. But
the action of the story is best reflected through this kind of
chaining of actions through ‘ands’. It is appropriate to the
movement of the action described.
Let us look at another example:
She dragged me after her into Miss Rachel’s sitting-room,
which opened to her bedroom. At her bedroom door stood
Miss Rachel, her face almost white as the white dressing-
gown she wore.
The author has used a simile: “white as the white dressing-
gown she wore.”
In fact, the whiteness of a human face is because of a strong
emotion — fear or shock.
But here comparing the whiteness to the dressing-gown she
wore serves to exaggerate and intensify the emotion.

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Exaggeration is one of the ways in which fact is distinguished

from fiction.
Now look at these lines from a well-known poem, ‘An Elegy
Written in a Country Churchyard’ by Thomas Gray.
Full many a gem of purest ray serene
The dark unfathom’d caves of ocean bear
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen
And waste its fragrance in the desert air.
The stanza carries a simple statement: many people with
outstanding qualities live and die unnoticed by the world.
To state this, the poet has used two strong images, ‘a gem’ and
‘a flower’.
He has used two contrasting places: the ocean, that is full of
water and the desert with no water at all.
Also notice the rhyming words: ‘serene’ and ‘unseen’, ‘bear’ and ‘air’.
The first and third lines also begin with the same words —“full
many a”. The lines are of equal length.
All this together contribute to the literary quality of these lines.

Activity I
Put down the images that come to your mind immediately when
you see the words in the box.

cat cupboard wall pond bird

Activity II
Try to write four lines of poetry or four sentences of prose with
one of these as the starting point.

Activity III
Write a short story beginning with this sentence:
When the last of the guests left, I went back into the hall.…

Activity IV
Look for a story, a poem and a newspaper article on
environment conservation and see how the style of each is
different from the other.

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