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In Bed – Joan Didion

Medical Background of Migraine: Migraine : [extremely bad headache] a recurrent, throbbing, very painful headache,often affecting one side of the head and sometimes accompanied by vomiting or by distinct warning signs including visual disturbances. Symptoms of Migraine Headache:  Headache is not continuous if it occurs it lasts long. Migraine attack occurs almost four to five times in a month. Flush (blush or redness) of blood in cerebral / brainy arteries / blood vessels. Vision is not clear (temporarily blind) Mild hallucinations / false sense perceptions / illusion / nightmare Gastrointestinal / stomach / digestive / gastric disturbance Overpowering fatigue / exhaustion, tiredness, weariness, weakness, lethargy, etc. Aphasia / lack of language abilities Chilling / sweating Nausea / sickness of the stomach / the unsettling feeling in the stomach that accompanies the urge to vomit Causes of Migraine Headache Attack: Stress Allergy Fatigue Abrupt Ch...

The Gardener – Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), a British poet, novelist, and the writer of short stories was born in India and set many of his writings in the Indian flavor. He was awarded by the Nobel Prize for literature in 1907.  ‘The Gardener’ ends surprisingly revealing the reality of Helen, the protagonist, and her relationship with Michael. Michael, whom Helen calls nephew, is in reality, her son whose father is unknown throughout the story. The gardener is a mysterious character who does not appear at first and in the middle but only at the last of the story creating confusions in the readers. Helen Turrell conceals (hides) the truth about Michael till the end of the story but she does not show any reaction when the gardener confidently says he will tell where her son lies.  The villagers of Hampshire believe Michael to be an unfortunate son of Helen’s late brother, George Turrell and his beloved (not wife). Actually it was not so. She had created a false story about Michae...

On the Vanity of Earthly Greatness – Arthur Guiterman

Message of the poem: We shouldn’t be proud of our achievements because every achievement is temporary. Time is the most valuable wealth and all our earthly greatness /                                 achievements are useless in comparison with time. Time is the leader which can make a sage the King and the King a sage. So, we shouldn’t be proud of earthly  greatness as we have. Summary: “On the Vanity of Worldly Things” is a poem written by Arthur Guiterman, an American poet and journalist, is best known for his humorous verse. Through humour, he has tried to depict the reality of human beings and animals caused by the change in time. It shows the bitter reality that the power of animals or human beings doesn’t remain same when time and situation change. We always run after reputation and prestige. We become o...

The Six Million Dollar Man – Harold J. Morowitz

The essayist found:   Human body made up of chemicals Chemical’s quantity in our body Price of 1 gm of each chemical Conclusion of the essayist : He was not cheaper but he was six million trillion man. Theme of the essay: Man with emotions, feelings, sensation, love, etc. is the most expensive  man. Though human body can be talked in terms of money, human being is priceless.  Summary: Dr. Harold J Morowita is a professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry. He is a scientist, teacher, and author. ‘The Six Million Dollar Man’ is a popular essay in which Morowitz examines the statistical statement that the chemical value of the human body is only 97 cents. He spends his essay in refining and improving the statement and tries to arrive at a more accurate definition at the end.  From a biochemical catalogue he collects the information about the price of ingredients that the human body is made of. Then he calculates the average value of a ...

Malini – Rabindranath Tagore

Characters: King Queen Malini: Hindu Princess Kemankar: Strict, traditional Brahman who is the leader of Brahmin Supriya: Very intimate friend of Kemankar Brahmins Malini is a princess of Kashi who follows the path of Buddhism. Brahmins take her acceptance of new religion as a threat to their religion. Infuriated / enraged / furious by it, they protest against her in front of the palace and demanding her banishment. Kemankar, leader of the protester says that woman as a threat is more dangerous than man because she cannot be defeated by arms neither can be overcome through reason because women do not possess it at all. Warning his fellow Protestants not to bow down in front of her beauty, he says: Friends keep your resolution firm. The woman, as an enemy, is to be dreaded more than all others. For reason is futile against her and forces all ashamed; man’s power gladly surrenders itself to her powerlessness, and she takes shelter in the strongholds of our own hearts. ...

Oops! How’s That Again? – Roger Rosenblatt

Why the examples in essay are given only of great or big persons? It’s so because the tongue slips are not only done by normal people but also done even by great or big persons of higher status.     Types of Tongue Slips: Mistranslation: mistake in translation Spoonerism : The transposition / substitution of sounds to each other: accidental verbal error: an accidental transposition of initial consonant sounds or parts of words, especially one that has an amusing result, for example, “half-warmed fish” for “half-formed wish”] Bloopers: Public blunder; spoken wrong in radio, press, etc. Faux pas: tactless mistake Why do we laugh? To discover the hidden motive of the speaker. Relief by a change. “ Oops! How’s That Again ” is an essay written by Rosenblatt and this essay has a humorous tone. Through the humorous tone also, the essayist has tried to reflect the bitter reality of human beings when they make mistake when they speak. He en...

Concrete Cat – Dorthi Charles

“Concrete Cat” is an example of a concrete poem, a poem just giving focus to the physical picture and not the imagination, emotion and language. This type of poem is written for eyes and not for mind and heart. It does not appeal to the heart because it doesn’t emphasize on emotion and thought. It is written in the short form, which is also called “reduced language”. Words do not follow the regular pattern of the poems. Words are scattered in such a way that they form the real portrait of the thing to be expressed by the poem. The chief concern of such a poem is with the physical appearance of poetry- not primarily with ideas or emotions and also not with language as we ordinarily use. This poem says something about a cat and its “catness” in action. Ear, eye, mouth, whisker, tail, etc. all sketched on the page denote both physical and abstract meanings. The middle stripe is the only place where language aspires toward poetry and becomes figurative. This middle stripe shows stom...