Monday, January 27, 2020

Fire on the Mountain by Anita Desai Summary

Fire on the Mountain by Anita Desai Summary The concern of psychological reality by Anita Desai is clearly reflected in one of her masterpieces Fire on the Mountain. The novel mainly deals with the loneliness and isolation as well as the resultant anguish and agony in the deserted life of an old widow. The novel narrates the story of Nanda Kaul who live in Carignano, a desolate and haunted house in Kasauli, away from the world of bags and letters, messages and demands, she had wanted to be left to the pines and cicadas aloneWhatever else came or happened would be an unwelcomed intrusion and distraction. Nanda Kauls happy isolation is threatened by the irritating letter from Asha, her daughter announcing the arrival of Raka, the grand-daughter of Asha and Nanda Kauls great grand-daughter. The unexpected arrival of Raka comes in the way of the desire to live like a recluse, far from the society. She does not want to involve herself in any responsibilities anymore, for all she wants is to be alone, to have Carignano to herself, stillness and calm are all that she wishes to entertain. But Ashas letter has made her apprehensive and she ponders painfully: Now, to bow again, to let that noose sleep once more round her neck that she had thought was freed fully, finally, Â ¦now to converse again when it was silence she wished. The novel deals with Nanda Kauls determined detachment and non-involvement which is brought about by the unhappy conjugal ties which is seen in Desais earlier novels like Cry, the Peacock, Voices in the City, Where Shall We Go This Summer, Bye Bye Blackbird, etc,. Her fierce desire to live alone is the result of her busy but, empty live as the wife of an ex Vice Chancellor of Punjab University. She played the role a dutiful wife and almost everyone envied her. But the inner reality of her life is revealed to us when we learned that her relationship with her husband was an unhappy one. She led her life as he wanted her to live out of a sense of duty. Her life as a Vice Chancellors wife though crowded and full of social activity was meaningless and unsatisfying. Although her busy schedule lacked warmth and understanding, she carried on because of her obligations to her husband and children. Once she discharged her duties she does not want any disturbances. Discharge me, she groaned, I have discharged all my duties. Discharge. She has done away with everyone and everything and becomes a recluse. Emotional deprivation is at the root of Nanda Kauls disillusionment with human bonds. Her husband did not love her as a wife and treated her as some decorative and useful instrument needed for the efficient running of his household. She enjoyed the comforts and social status of the wife of a dignitary but deep down she felt lonely and neglected. Her husband extra marital affair with Miss David had been a source of agony throughout her life. She now believes every attachment to be the preface of a new betrayal and all socialization as fake. Her bond with her husband did not involve her self. It was full on the surface but empty at the core. The painful memory of the days when her husband went to visit Miss Davids home haunts her even in the isolation at Carignano and on such occasions she lost her composition and harmony. Feelings of anguish and distrust of humanity also re veals itself as she learns the death of Ila Das, her friend who was brutally raped and murdered. The traumatic married life of Nanda Kaul is clearly sketched in the lines nor had her husband loved and cherished her and kept her like a queen-he had only done enough to keep her quiet while he carried on a life-long affair with Miss David. And her children were all alien to her nature. In her earlier novels, the incompatibility of temperaments or psychic complexes cause dissonance in the marital ties. But in Fire on the mountain an extra marital affairs disturb the conjugal relationship of Nanda Kaul and her husband. This deeply affects her outlook on life and makes her distrust all attachments and affairs. The conflict between the need to withdraw in order to preserve ones wholeness and sanity and the need to be involved in the painful process of life is shown vividly in the novel. This wavering between attachment and detachment reflects the need for a meaningful life. Nanda Kaul meets with a measure of success until she is drawn out of herself by Rakas effortless withdrawal who seem to be totally absorbed in a world of her own and ignores Nanda Kaul completely when compared with the latters flawed experiment. Raka only wants to be left alone to pursue her own secret life amongst the rocks and pines of Kasauli. Nanda Kaul wants to penetrate Rakas secret world as if Rakas total withdrawal is a challenge to her because withdrawal does not come naturally to her. In her desire to win Rakas affection and attention she builds an imaginary world around her father but this is of no avail. This action of Nanda Kaul also shows the unsatisfying condition of her own childhood and family life. Psychological experiment of the writer in the novel can also be seen on the portrayal of Rakas character. Psychologists attach great significance to the parent-child relationship, because, according to them the patterning of emotion takes place particularly during childhood. They argue that the prevailing quality of the experience the child has with his parents particularly the mother during early childhood is of paramount importance. Childhood is the most formative period of ones personality and socialization of the child begin in the family in the company of his parents who are the first individuals with whom the child interacts. Child learns the patterns of behavior which the parents set out to teach him in order to make him an acceptable member of the society. The emotion of the child depends largely on the quality of the emotional interaction that prevails between the child and his parents. Anita Desais characters have strange childhood, and their experiences and interactions du ring this formative period when combined with their congenital hypersensitivity contribute towards their inability to establish and maintain harmonious inter-personal relationship in later life. Commenting upon her solitary and introspective characters childhood, she observes I agree that the experiences of childhood are the most vivid and lasting ones. Based on this we shall study the parent-child relationship in Fire on the mountain and show how far the childhood interaction affects and moulds them in the ability to relate themselves with others. Another aspect of the novel deals with the result of a stifling home environment upon the tender psyche of Raka, the great grandchild of Nanda Kaul and the only child character in the novel. She is not a normal child and shuns all tenderness viciously. Unlike children of her age who gets attracted to fairy tales, adventure stories, the colorful and gay aspect of the world, Raka possesses a weird imagination and is drawn to uncanny places and things. After getting to know her character, we are not surprise when the care-taker of the burnt-house rightly thinks of her as the crazy one from Carignano. She as a child loves privacy and seclusion and her rejection of Nanda Kaul is complete when she feels restless to go out for her usual roaming in the presence of the former. Without informing her great grandmother she roams around all alone in the ravine or visits the lonely burnt house on the hill. She does not care for Nanda Kaul :She ignored her so calmly, so totally that it made Nanda K aul breathless. Raka is an abnormal child in comparison to other children. She never makes demand and seems to have no need of anything. The only thing she ever wanted was to be left alone and pursue her own secret life amongst the rocks and pines of Kasauli. Solitude never disturbs her and she is therefore happy during her stay in Carignano. One day while coming back from her daily excursions, she gets late and stumbles into the club building. Out of curiosity to know what is going on inside she inquires Ram Lal, the servant of Nanda Kaul, who told her about fancy dress balls. However, what Raka sees there is like a nightmare for her and therefore is disappointing. The perverted acts of the people dressed in the most bizarre fashion remind her of her own father and his wild behavior at home: Somewhere behind them was her father, home from a party, stumbling and crashing through the curtains of night beating her mother that made Raka cover under her bed clothes and wet the mattress in fright. The b ehavior of her parents in front of her has a deep influence on her tender mind. They have no time or inclination to cater the emotional needs of their child. Her father is a drunkard who always abuses and beats his wife. The mother is in such unhappy condition that she cannot do anything for her child. Consequently, Rakas traumatic experience deprived her of a childs trust and feelings of joy in the company of others. When Nanda Kaul tries to attract the child towards herself by narrating the stories of her childhood, Raka twists restlessly in her stool, her interest lost in this talk of belonging rather than happenings. Since in her parents home Raka has not been the center of attention like other normal children, she is not interested in stories about people and relations. She is, therefore happy in Kasauli with its charred house on the ridge, with its fire-blasted hilltop where nothing sounds good, but the creaking of the pines in the wind. The chaos in the life of her parents ma kes Raka averse to belongingness. From all the evidences we can get the impression that the seeds of neurotic drives are sown during ones childhood. The quality of interactions between Raka and her parents, and the disturbing home environment combined together to exert a lasting influence on her tender psyche. Anita Desai calls her a natural recluse and compares her with Nanda Kaul who was a recluse out of vengeance for a long-life of duty and obligation. However, we cannot say that Raka is a born recluse. She is a victim of a broken home. She becomes an introvert because of the abnormal circumstances around her. She has witnessed enough of the ambiguity of life and has seen bitterness, distrust and violence. Raka is a victim of emotional deprivation. Her embarrassing loveless childhood fills her heart with distrust and suspicion. As a result, she turns her back upon human beings and their so called safe, cozy and civilized world and develops a strong fascination for the ugly, lonely, rugged and desolate aspects of nature. Anita Desai though believing that childhood impressions shape the personality and attitude of the individual, she also states that even adult life contains many traumatic experiences. In this light we can explicate the inordinate desire for seclusion and non-involvement in the case of Nanda Kaul herself. Her love for privacy is not something inherent in her. In fact, her desire for seclusion is due to the unhappy relationship she has had with her husband and children. She initially, resent Rakas arrival because it reminds her of the past memories of her selfish children and faithless husband. Her relationship with her husband was nothing beyond the obligation they have for each other. After a long life of disorder, she has reached a state of elegant perfection. The thought of having a child around her at this stage is very undesirable for her. Even when Raka reaches Carignano she tries to keep aloof as the former arrival reminds her of her past life of duties and involvement. But Nan da Kauls strong resolution to be alone in Carignano begins to crumble in the presence of Raka. She once again looks for someone to care for her. Her inner self forced her to reach out to others, to love and be loved. In reality, she is filled with tenderness for Raka. All her life she has tried to feel wanted and be loved. Her efforts have been to get positive response from her family for her devotion, but all in vain. Despite all the betrayals and disappointments she received from her husband and children, she feels irresistibly drawn towards Raka as she longs for love. Fire on the mountain is largely concerned with the problems of being related. The psychological aspect of the novel is best portrayed in the relationship of the characters. Nanda Kaul and Rakas suffer at the hands of those who are related to them. They seem to develop hatred for all human contacts and cherish to live an unattached, uninvolved existence. In Nandas case the desire for seclusion is a mask to hide her intense longing for fulfilling emotional bond. Anita Desai has added a new dimension by writing a novel like Fire on the Mountain to the Indian fiction in English probing deep into the bottomless pit of human psyche, she brings the hidden contours into much sharper focus. She always emphasizes on character delineation and for exceptional characters in exceptional circumstances aiming at final essence of subjective life and consciousness. The charm of her art lies in her characters, independent, agonized frustrated and combating with angry defense. She has procured an important place for herself in the Indo-English fiction writings by shifting the refrain of her fiction from outer reality to inner reality and by carrying the flow of the mental experience of its characters she adds a new dimension to it. In a way she has presented the potentials of the post independent writers in English. It is true that Desai has her limits but she compensates her material in intensity what she lacks in variety. Desais unquestionable existential a nd psychological concerns have distinguished her from other novelist of her generation. We can say she unravels the subconscious of her highly sensitive protagonists.

Sunday, January 19, 2020

Speech About Friendship Essay

Example of Short Speech About Friendship Good morning Sir and my fellow classmates. I am standing here to deliver an oration  speech about FRIENDSHIP and THE IMPORTANT ROLE THAT IT PLAYS IN OUR LIVES for 5 minutes. Firstly, let’s define friendship, WHAT IS FRIENDSHIP? †¦. well, friendship consists of true friends that can make you laugh when skies are the darkest , true friends that will even hurt you only if it’s for your own good, friends that will protect you under any circumstances and friends that will make you feel like you’re on the top of the world when you’re feeling crushed to the ground. My fellow audiences. Informative Speech About Friendship Have you ever noticed that when a friend is happy you find yourself happy too, even when it has nothing to do with you? A true friend is like a mirror. Do you know why ? its because they reflect yourself. When I say that, I mean by emotionally, spiritually and much more. When you’re happy, they’re happy and when you’re sad, they’re feeling pretty much the same way you’re feeling too. People nowadays , in this modern life have lost sight of what a true friendship and love  is. Friends do not have to be exactly the same, I mean, friends do have similarities but they also have their differences. The key to opening up the world of friendship is not just to focus on the similarities but to accept each other’s faults because true friends do not judge each other. Friends love unconditionally. They do have their little angry long moments from time to time but at the end of the day all is forgiven and forgotten. True friends are very rare to find bu t once you’ve found them, don’t let them go because not everyone has true friends even if they’re popular and famous. I hope all of you as my audience get the true meaning of friends because it’s wonderful to be with such amazing friends. Works Cited â€Å"Friendship and Reason.† Thinking about Friendship (n.d.): n. pag. Web. Horowitz, Rosalind. Talking Texts: How Speech and Writing Interact in School Learning. Mahwah, NJ: L. Erlbaum Associates, 2007. Print. â€Å"Speech on Friendship for Students in Simple and Easy Words.† Manuscript  Speech on Friendship for Students in Simple and Easy Words. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2016. Friendship from Wikipedia  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendship

Saturday, January 11, 2020

The Controversies in the Education System of US

Think about how much of your life is spent trying to learn all you can and make yourself better prepared for the â€Å"real world. † We start schooling at age five or six. Kindergarten is about finger paints and learning the alphabet. Before we know it, we are standing in front of our class and parents accepting a high school diploma. That is thirteen years right there. Then, if we really want to â€Å"succeed† we have to get through another 4 to 6 years of college. That is almost 20 years total in school. Are those 20 years well spent? Are we all satisfied with the education we received? The answer is â€Å"no. † It is apparent that today†s education system in the United States is not satisfying the needs of all people. One of the main controversies in the education system of the United States is the content of what is taught. Everything that is taught in school is uniform for the entire grade. However, not every individual student is uniform in what they already know and how capable they are of learning new things. Not only that, but also is each student interested in learning what everyone else is learning? Today there are many schools that have put more emphasis in teaching learning skills rather than the knowledge that is needed to move on to the next level (Hirsch 129). Some schools have gone to what is known as â€Å"core knowledge† to make sure that each and every student has the same foundation upon which to build the rest of their education. They believe that through the method of â€Å"core knowledge†, everyone can benefit together (Hirsch 129). Opposite that idea is the idea that we shouldn†t be filling a child†s mind with â€Å"miscellaneous facts†, but rather be trying to extract the knowledge that is within each person†s mind (Harris). The main argument with that opinion is that without some filling, there won†t be anything to extract from a person. One positive thing that our children are learning is the ability to think creatively and be innovative. Many Americans overlook the fact that in this country, children are able to experiment with ideas and learn to believe in themselves and in their own creativity (Ho 126). But is mere creativity enough to make up for the other shortfalls in education? Another big controversy in education is the way the children are taught. Many of the same arguments that are made regarding what is taught, can be made regarding how it is taught. Those who are naturally talented and intellectual say that filling a child†s head with various types of knowledge is not very productive, but what about those children that need that knowledge just to be at an equal level with the other students. Children who have not learned very much at home or outside of school won†t have very much to give intellectually, so the idea of teaching to draw out personal knowledge will not work. How do you fairly teach a class that will mean whether or not you will keep your job? Many teachers face this dilemma today because of the process of anonymous evaluation. Teachers who get a bad evaluation could lose their jobs because of it, thus there is an ever-growing problem of teachers giving better grades to possibly save their job. What about the grades that are given? As long as there has been a school, there have been grades given to students to show how well they are doing in school. But are grades the most effective way to show a student†s progress and more importantly, what they actually learned? Some call grading â€Å"tyrannical and indefensible† and even go as far as saying the grading system is â€Å"criminal† (Lean 131-32). Grading is probably the most scrutinized of all practices in education. It is easy to see the difference between an â€Å"A† and an â€Å"F† in a subject like math where the answer is either right or wrong. But, how do you give a grade in a subject like art where each piece is something from an individual†s own creative mind? There is no right or wrong, or good or bad. So how could anyone say that his painting is an â€Å"A†, while her sculpture is an â€Å"F†? In a case like that, grading can be seen as nothing more than personal preference. So how does grading affect students and teachers? The grades given to students not only affect the students† lives, but the teachers† lives also. For students, bad grades mean not getting into the college of their choice, and for the teachers, bad grades mean possible bad evaluations. Many people have blamed bad grades for giving a child low self-esteem, but what about those children who have excellent grades and no social lives. Don†t they have low self-esteem? Building self-esteem in students shouldn†t be a substitution for basic schooling (Moore 136). It has been argued that teachers lower their grading standards in order to raise the self-esteem of their students. Those teachers believe that a high self-esteem is necessary for a student to learn well and have a high self-esteem (Moore 136). True self-esteem does not come from a high GPA, a piece of paper called a diploma, or even a high status socially; it comes from hard work and meaningful accomplishments. Do you want children to be filled with trivial information or encouraged to think on their own and explore their own intelligence? Do you want to receive letter grades just like you or do would you rather receive evaluations on their progress? Do you think that their self-esteem should be based on their grades or something more important? These are questions we will have to answer in new millennium and as we become new parents. The education of our children is something too important to overlook.

Thursday, January 2, 2020

Financial Statements Course Work

Introduction Financial statements are essential documents for any business and it’s hence the obligation of the business owner to ensure that these statements are properly tracked. Record keeping of the financial statements has a lot of significance to the welfare of a business be it small or large. 1.) Discuss why its important for small business managers to constantly analyze their financial statements (i.e. the balance sheet, the income statement and their cash flow statement). Balance sheets are important because they assist the business owner to evaluate the assets and the capital injected into the business. The owner is also in a position to analyse the liabilities in the business. Likewise, the income statement enables the owner to know whether the business is operating at a profit or loss. The cash flow statement is important as it gives the direction in which most of the cash in the business is directed. 2.) Discuss why developing a marketing strategy is one of the most critical functions of a business. It is important for any business to initialize a market strategy before introducing any product in the market. A market strategy puts the business in a position to evaluate the performance of a similar product from competitor companies. The strategy gives the business a sense of direction on how best to introduce its product into the market. It also enlightens the business on a variety of measures to conquer the market and to fully counter competition. 3.) There are small businesses who dont bother to write a business plan and they still run successful businesses. Discuss the purpose of writing a plan and how a small business owner can use the plan in managing the business. A business plan is one of the most important factors before establishing a business. A business plan gives the best ideas on allocation of resources. It also assists in knowing how best to overcome competition in the market. A business plan will also direct the business on the most effective and efficient ways of operation, organizational structure and policies. The goals, visions and missions of organizations are as well developed when formulating the business plan. The business plan enables a business to fully analyze the internal and external environments of a business. The chances of a business failing after a business plan is formulated are low.