Friday, September 30, 2016

12 Manners to get respect from others

12 Manners to get respect from others

The Golden word is “Mannerism make a man, good manners make a good man.”

Sometimes, even educated people behave unnatural way even in trifle matters and become cheap in the eyes of others. So to avoid such embarrassing situations, it is well and good to observe the following 12 points and be dignified.

  1. Never read the letters of even your closest relatives, friends, and family members like brothers / sisters. If you read their letters, they will treat you a person without manners.

  1. Never show interest in others personal matters and do not read their personal diaries.

  1. Never see their SMSs in their cell phones and also their money purses.

  1. Don’t see their albums, unless they request you to see them and also not pass your comments about the album’s nature and external appearance.

  1. Switch off the cell phones or keep them in silent mode, when you are attending the official meetings, cultural programmes and also during dinner times in the presence of guests.

  1. Whenever guest visit your home, open the door and invite them politely and walk behind them (not in front of them) and make them be seated comfortably either in the chairs or in a sofa.

  1. Whenever you go to your friend’s house, take with you, sweets and fruits and for the children biscuits and chocolates etc.

  1. Whenever anyone visits your home, usually they bring something for you and to your children also and you also reciprocate them in the same manner.

  1. Whenever you have taken help from others, express your gratitude by saying words like, ‘thanks or please…’, etc. you will get good impression in their opinion about you. Give tips to waiters in hotels or restaurants.

  1. During parties or in functions take the food items along with the guests (not alone) and also it is good to serve each other and drink together. It is a good social behaviour.

  1. While taking coffee, tea or cool drink in the office, always keep the office files on your left side (not on a right side).

  1. A simple smile on your face brings laurels and creates good impression on you in other’s minds; moreover it costs nothing but fetches everything.

‘Give respect and take respect’ is a good slogan and keep it in your mind, wherever you go and whatever your profession and position may be.

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Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Waterloo - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Waterloo - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: Summary 

There are four characters in this play. Corporal Brewster aged ninety-six, Norah Brewster, his grandniece, Sergeant McDonald and Colonel Midwinter. In a front room in a small country house there is a roughly made painting of Corporal Brewster in a red coat with a bearskin. On one side of the portrait, there is a cutting from a newspaper framed, and on the other, there is a medal also within a frame. 

Norah Brewster comes in with a bundle of her luggage. She finds nobody at home. She is impressed with her grand-uncle's portrait and medal. Her granduncle seems to have been neglected, so she has come to look after him. The housekeeper seems to have gone after lighting the fire. Norah waxes to prepare food for her granduncle. She thinks only a brave man dared to fight against him. 

Just then Sergeant McDonald has come to see Corporal Gregory Brewster, who was in the Scots Guards and who fought in the battle of Waterloo. Then the Sergeant goes out wishing to come again in an hour or two when he comes back from the butts. Then Norah asks who she will say came for him. He returns and says that he is Sergeant McDonald of Artillery. He has heard that the old gentleman was not properly looked after. Norah says that that is why her father sent her to do what she could. She is preparing tea for the old man. McDonald says that there is not many living now who can say that they fought against Napoleon Bonaparte. He reads the slip of paper beside the medal. There is the date, August 1815: He also reads the cutting of the newspaper. There's the heading "Heroic Deed" and the following report: "On Tuesday an interesting ceremony was performed at the barracks of the third regiment of the Guards and a special meal was presented to Corporal Gregory Brewster in recognition of his bravery in the recent great battle. On the 18th of June four companies of the Third Guards held the important farmhouse of Hougoumont. At a critical period of the action the troops found themselves short of powder, and Corporal Brewster was sent to bring the reserve ammunition. The Corporal returned with two carts, but he found that in his absence the French had ignited the hedge around the farm and the passage of the carts had become almost impossibility. The first cart exploded, killing the driver and his comrade turned his horses, but Corporal Brewster jumped into his seat, threw the driver down and drove the cart through the flames and rejoined his comrades and the battle was bravely won." He hands back the frame and Norah says that they are all proud of her uncle. 

Taking his carbine, the Sergeant goes and Norah thinks that he kindly reads to her all about her uncle. Her uncle calls Mary, the housekeeper, to give him his food. Corporal Brewster enters. He is walking unsteadily. He's very thin, bent and his hair is white and his face is wrinkled. When he walks across the room, Norah looks at the man first and then at his picture on the wall. The old man is dissatisfied and asks for food because the cold has injured him without food. He wants to have tea. Then Norah introduces her as his brother, George's granddaughter and he is surprised at his little George having a girl. He remembers that he gave a pup to his brother and asks her if he did not give it to her to bring. And Norah replies that her grandfather died twenty years before. He drinks tea with loud supping. She gives him butter and egg and he eats voraciously. He asks her if she came by coach yesterday. Then she replies that she came by the morning train. But the old man is afraid of the new things. He wonders how she travelled more than twenty miles in the morning. He is surprised at the rapid progress in the world. He says that he gets energy from food. Life does not seem very long to him. He is over ninety, but he thinks that he got his bounty only yesterday and he still feels the smell of the burned powder on his nose. He is proud of the day when he was given the medal. He coughs and drinks medicine out of the bottle. 

A regiment of soldiers is coming down the street. Norah is quite excited. The old man wants his glasses and complains that bands don't seem to play as loud nowadays as they used to. He wants to know their number, but Norah says they have no numbers, but names. He is not very happy with this change. He enjoys watching them march and swing. He feels pain in his chest and his skin also causes him pain. 

The Sergeant appears again in the room. He wants to see the old man. He says that he is proud and glad to see the old man. He salutes him. Norah is half frightened and half attracted to see the young man. The old man asks him to sit down. When he sees the three stripes, he says that it is three times easier to these days. The Sergeant introduces himself and says that all his mates are proud to have the old man in the town. He also invites the old man to the non-commissioned mess to have a pipe and a glass of rum. The Corporal says that he will go there in fine weather. He is happy to hear about the non-commissioned mess. When the Sergeant asks him if he was in the Guards, he replies that he was in the Scots Guards. He adds that all the Guardsmen from the Colonel Byng to the drummer boys have marched away and that he is still here as a loafer. He thinks that it is not his fault because he can't leave his post without being called. The Sergeant gives him a pouch of tobacco. He tries to fill his clay pipe, but drops it. It breaks and he begins to sob like a child. The Sergeant soothes him by giving him his wooden pipe and he smiles instantly bursting through his tears. He says that it's a fine pipe, and that his brother, George, never had pipes like this. He also wants to have the feel of the carbine and is surprised at it. Then the Sergeant goes out. Norah thinks that he will be like her granduncle in sixty years and that her granduncle was once like him. The old man asks her to move his chair to the door. It will be warm there and the flies won't disturb him. 

The old man then asks Norah to read to him from the Bible. He wants her to read about the wars and soldiers. When Norah says that it's all peace in the next world, he replies that there will be the final battle of Armageddon. He wants to go back to the corner. When he is rising, Colonel Midwinter comes in civilian costume. He has come to see the Corporal (the old man). When he introduces himself as the Colonel of the Scots Guards, the Corporal jumps to his feet and salutes Then he staggers and is about to fall. The Colonel and Norah support him. He feels very happy that the colonel has come to visit him. The Colonel also says that they are proud of the Corporal in London. He tells the Colonel about his health. But his memory is excellent. He remembers the names of every person in the company and every detail of the battle. The most impressive thing of his life was that he lost three half-crowns that he lent to Jabes Smith at Brussels. The Colonel says that the officers of the Guards want him to buy him some little present which may add to his comfort. Then the Corporal requests the Colonel to do him a favor He wishes to have a flag and a firing party when he dies because he is not a civilian and he also wants two lines of the bearskins after his coffin The Colonel says that he will see to it but hopes that they may have nothing but good news from him. And he goes out. 

Norah supposes that the old man is asleep. But he is so grey and thin that he frightens her. She wishes she had someone to advise her when he is ill and when he is not. Suddenly the Sergeant enters and asks how he is. But she feels quite frightened about him. He hopes that the sleep will bring strength to him. He has collected a pound of fine tobacco for the old man. He asks her if she has been to the barrack and requests her to come with her granduncle. The old man, in a loud voice says that the Guards need powder and struggles to rise. Norah is frightened. He again says that the Guards need powder and falls back into the chair. Norah and the Sergeant rush to him. Norah starts to sob and asks what he thinks of the old man. The Sergeant seriously replies that the corporal is dead and with his old companions. 

-----000---- 

1984 – George Orwell

1984 – George Orwell 

Summary of the Novel 

The concepts of free enterprise and individual freedom no longer exist in 1984. Only three superpowers remain to dominate a world of Hatred, Isolation, and Fear. Eurasia and Eastasia are two of these superpowers. Oceania, the other, is always at war with one of them. 

Winston Smith is a 39-year-old employee at the Ministry of Truth, London, located in Oceania. His world is shaped by the Party and its dictator/leader Big Brother, whose face is everywhere on posters captioned “Big Brother Is Watching You.” Big Brother controls life in Oceania through the four ministries of Peace, Love, Plenty, and Truth. Winston’s job at the Ministry of Truth involves revisions of historical documents and rewrites of News stories to reflect the Party’s infallibility. 
The Party, which carries out government policies in Oceania, rations food, issues clothing, and selects social activities. Both chocolate and tobacco are in short supply during this latest war. Winston’s clothing, including his tattered pajamas, is government issued, and his evenings are spent in government-sponsored meetings. 

War and Hatred dominate Oceania, where the Party monitors every move and expression with telescreens, hidden microphones, and spies. The Thought Police, Big Brother’s secret militia, help the Party quell any sign of revolt by eliminating all who think or behave in a disloyal fashion. Hate Week intensifies feeling against Emmanuel Goldstein, Enemy of the People, while increasing devotion to Big Brother. The Party also preaches that the proles (proletarians), the majority, are natural inferiors to be kept in check. 

The Party, however, does not completely control Winston. He secretly buys an illegal diary in which he writes the heresy “Down with Big Brother.” In doing so, he commits the worst offense, “thought crime,” a new speak term for the “essential crime that contained all others in itself.” Many of Winston’s thoughts revolve around his attempts to remember various events and people from his childhood, especially his mother who had disappeared years before. Winston tries to investigate the specifics of life in London before the Revolution, but it seems the Party has been successful in eradicating all remnants of daily life in the past. 

Winston enters into an affair with the free-spirited Julia, a fellow employee at the Ministry of Truth. At the beginning they view their desire for one another as a political act against the Party dominated by hate and suspicion. Since promiscuity among Party members has been forbidden, they view their affair as an act of rebellion. As the affair continues, Winston’s feelings for Julia change. Although the couple knows the affair is doomed, they continue to meet secretly in an attic room above a junk shop owned by Mr. Charrington, the man who sold the diary, and later, a coral paperweight, to Winston. The lovers discuss the repressiveness of their lives and the possibility of joining the Brotherhood, the secret underground of Emmanuel Goldstein whose express purpose is to overthrow Big Brother. 
At work at the Ministry of Truth, Winston is approached by O’Brien, an acquaintance who seems to share his views. After Winston and Julia visit O’Brien at his apartment, he recruits them as members of the Brotherhood and promises to send them a copy of Goldstein’s book, which details strategies to destroy Big Brother. Winston pledges to do whatever it takes, including murder and suicide, to erode the power of the Party. 

The inevitable occurs when Julia and Winston are arrested in their secret room, betrayed by Mr. Charrington, a member of the Thought Police. Winston is taken to the Ministry of Love where he is starved, beaten, and tortured during the next months in an effort to “cure” him. Ironically, his torturer is O’Brien, who confirms his identity as a dedicated Inner Party member. Winston submits after a long struggle when he is taken to the mysterious room 101 and threatened with a cage of hungry rats prepared to devour him. At this point he finally betrays Julia. 

Soon Winston is released, but he awaits the bullet he knows will extinguish him. He unexpectedly runs into Julia, who admits that she too had betrayed their love. Surprisingly, Winston feels no desire for her, preferring instead to take his usual seat at the Chestnut Street Cafe where he spends another night in his habitual alcoholic stupor. Winston knows that it is only a matter of time before the Party executes him; nevertheless, when the telescreen barks the news of the army’s latest victory, he weeps with joy. The Party finally controls Winston, whose defeat is summed up in the final sentence, “He loved Big Brother.”  

***** 

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Othello - William Shakespeare

Othello – William Shakespeare (Summary of Act V)

Iago and Roderigo wait outside the brothel where Cassio visits Bianca. Iago keeps Roderigo in a position with a rapier where he will be able to ambush Cassio. Iago then withdraws himself though roderigo asks him not to go too far in case he needs his help in killing Cassio. Cassio enters and Roderigo stabs at Cassio but fails to pierce Cassio’s armour. In self-defense, Cassio immediately stabs Roderigo and wounds him fatally. In this commotion, Iago darts out from his hiding and stabs Cassio in the leg and exits.   Not knowing who has stabbed him, Cassio falls crying ‘murder’, ‘murder’.  At this same moment, Othello hearing Cassio’s frantic cries of murder and believes that Iago has killed Cassio. Then, Othello returns to his bedchamber under the influence of Iago’s successful vengeance to kill his own wife, Desdemona.

Othello enters his bedchamber holding a candle and stands over his sleeping wife, Desdemona and prepares to kill her. He bends down to kiss her once before he does his deed. She wakes up as he is trying to kiss her. He tells her to prepare to die. Growing frightened, Desdemona asks her husband why he means to kill her. Othello tells her that she has been unfaithful to him with Cassio for which he had a proof in the handkerchief. She pleads with him for her innocence and tries to convince him about her honesty against his charges of guilt. Othello refuses to believe Desdemona’s denial of his charges, saying that Cassio has confessed but he will speak no more, since he has been killed by Iago.  Desdemona begins to weep for Cassio, as she hears about his death, which only drives Othello into a greater rage. Othello tries to strangle her. Struggling to escape from manly grip of her husband she begs him to allow her to live just a little longer. In spite of her helpless begging, Othello finally succeeds in smothering his wife. By the time, Emilia calls from outside the door. In delirium, Othello confused her cries with his wife’s and concludes that Desdemona is not yet dead. Thinking himself to be merciful; and not wanting his wife linger in pain, he smoothers her again. 

Later, Othello draws the bed curtains and lets Emilia in. Emilia informs Othello that Cassio has killed Roderigo. Othello asks her if Cassio has also been killed as well. Emilia informs him that Cassio is still alive. As Othello begins to realize that his plans have gone awry. In the mean time Desdemona cries out that she has been murdered. She stays alive long enough to recant this statement. She tells Emilia that she was not murdered but killed herself. She dies. Othello triumphantly admits to Emilia that he killed Desdemona. Emilia asks him why she was killed. Othello tells her that Iago opened his eyes to Desdemona’s falsehood. Emilia is unfazed by Othello’s threat that she was best to remain silent. Then, Emilia calls out for help. Montano, Graziano and Iago enter the scene to take stock of the situation. 

As the truth of Iago’s villainy begins to come out through Emilia’s accusations. Hearing all, Othello falls weeping upon the bed that contains the body of his dead wife. Still, Othello clings to his belief in Iago’s truth and Desdemona’s guilt, mentioning the handkerchief and Cassio’s ‘confession’. When Othello mentions the handkerchief, Emilia erupts, and Iago, no longer certain that he can keep his plots hidden, he attempts to silence her with his sword. Graziano stops him and Emilia explains how she found the handkerchief and gave it to Iago. Realizing this Othello runs at Iago but he is disarmed by Montano. In this commotion, Iago is able to stab his wife, Emilia. Emilia falls dead apparently. Emilia’s dying words tells Othello that Desdemona was chaste and loved him. Hearing this, Othello stabs himself and falls across the bed on which where his wife, Desdemona had fallen dead. Thus, Othello meets his tragic end as he was lending his ears for others’ words.

****


ODYSSEUS - Summary

  ODYSSEUS   Summary    Odysseus, lord of the isle of Ithaca, has been missing from his kingdom for twenty years. The first ten had been spe...