Qahwah

A Dilemma

A Dilemma: A Layman Looks at Science

Raymond Blaine Fosdick (1883-1972), lawyer, public servant, and author was born in Buffalo, New York, the son of a high school principal. He was a lifetime disciple of Woodrow Wilson. Raymond B. Fosdick  in the lesson  ‘A Dilemma: A Layman Looks at Science’  says that science  should  be used only for the constructive purpose and not to be  aimed  at  the degeneration of the society. August  6,  1945,  a  day  of  unfortunate,  on  which  the atomic bomb  was  dropped  on Hiroshima  brought  home  to all of us about the significance (or) importance of science in  human  life.  Mankind  was frightened by science and bewildered by  its  enormous  power.  This  instance  has realised the mankind how unequipped we are in terms of ethics, law, and government, to know how to use it. The author says that science  is based  on  truth and should spring from the noblest attribute of the human spirit.

There are certain inventions that can evoke both positive and negative responses. The invention of the radio, automobiles, penicillin, radar and jet propulsions shall be aimed towards the betterment of the society rather  than  creating  ugliness and desolation. The gifts of science,  the  author  vehemently  feels, should not blow our civilization into  drifting  dust. The  research  and Technology  yield  right  fruits  when  they  are  related  to  human welfare.

Science is the search for truth. But it is the same search for truth that has brought our civilization to the brink of  destruction.  The  writer  strongly  feels that research shall be subjected to some kind of restraint if it is not linked  to human constructive purpose; it is really  disheartening  to  read  about  that  leading scientists associated with atom bomb saying that one should  not hold  back progress because of fear of misuse of   science.

Fosdick says that some inventions are purely accidental and the scientists never had any evil intentions while discovering them. For instance Albert Einestein never thought of atom bomb while working for his transformation equation in 1905. Yet, from this it has come out one of the principles  upon which atom bomb is based. Similarly sulphur drugs and mustard gas which are offshoots of German dye industry  was  not  created  to  deal  with  either  medicine or weapons of  war.  Willard  Gibbs, was  a  gentle  spirit  whose  life  was spent in his laboratory at Yale University, had never dreamt that his research  in the mathematical physics might have even a remote  relationship  to  World War I & II. These discoveries are classic examples  where  the gifts  of science  can  be used by evil men to do evil even more  obviously  and dramatically than it can be used by men of goodwill to do good.

The author concludes that the towering enemy of mankind is not science but  war.  Science merely reflect the social  forces  by  which  it is surrounded. When there is peace, science is constructive and when there is war, science is perverted to destructive ends.  Our  problem  therefore  is  not  to  curb  science but to stop war- to substitute law for force and international government for anarchy in the relations of  one  nation  with  another.  He  feels  that  our  education should be  based  on  tolerance  understanding  and  creative intelligence that should run fast enough to put an end to the evil effects of the science. Formally, Science must help us but the decision lies within ourselves ie., the sole responsibility  is of human beings.

The Boy who Broke the Bank Short story by Ruskin Bond

the boy who broke the bank

Short story by Ruskin Bond

            "The Boy Who Broke the Bank" is a short story by Ruskin Bond. It is about a boy who was working at a bank by sweeping up. The bank manager was way overdue in paying him for the job. Soon that bank collapsed and rumor had it that it was because of the unpaid boy. Because word got around that the boy didn't get paid, people assumed that the bank had no money. The people who dealt with the bank were worried about their money. This story is basically about how rumors and lack of communication can cause many problems and be destructive.

            Mrs. Bhushan told the news to her husband, Mr. Bhushan who was talking to Kamal Kishore. Kamal Kishore, who owned a photographic shop, passed on the news to his neighbor, a barber. At the time the barber was giving a haircut to an elderly gentleman. The fact was that the bank did not pay the sweeper till the 20^th of the current month. But as it travelled, the news coloured the facts in such a way that people thought that the bank was about to collapse.

Hearing the news, the elderly gentleman ran across the road to a general merchant’s store and made a phone call to Seth Govindaram, the owner of the bank. He learned that Seth was away to Kashmir on a pleasure trip. He concluded that the owner of the bank ran away from the town to escape as the bank was about to collapse. He informed the same to Dev Chand, the barber. Then he hurried to his home to get his checkbook to withdraw money from the bank.

The news of the bank’s imminent collapse spread in the town like a wildfire. At the general merchant’s shop, it circulated in customers. Soon everybody started talking about the news. A new rumor started to spread that Seth had left the state. Some others said that he left the country.  Some people said that he was hiding somewhere in the town. Some even said that he had hanged himself to a tamarind tree.

            As every customer of the bank started withdrawing money, the small bank had gone through all its ready cash reserves by noon. The bank manager was in a dilemma. He could not get any emergency funds immediately from another bank, which was some thirty miles away. Nor could he contact the owner of the bank, who was beyond his reach, on a house-boat in Kashmir. He tried in vain to convince the people that the bank had plenty of money. He urged them to come on the next day.

            As people the rumor that the bank was about to collapse, they gathered in front of the bank in large numbers demanding the repayment of their deposits. By noon, the small bank had gone through all its ready cash reserves. The manager could neither get emergency funds nor contact the owner. He tried in vain to convince the people that the bank had plenty of money. He urged them to come on the next day. But customers demanded their cash on the spot. Several mischief makers joined the crowd. Somebody hurled a brick on the glass window and broke it. That was the end of the Pipalnagar Bank.

            The next day after all the chaos, the sweeper boy who unintentionally caused all the pandemonium, came to the bank to find it in shambles not realizing he was the one who triggered the onslaught.

Dover Beach poem

"Dover Beach" 

 poem

Summary

            One night, the speaker of "Dover Beach" sits with a woman inside a house, looking out over the English Channel near the town of Dover. They see the lights on the coast of France just twenty miles away, and the sea is quiet and calm.

            When the light over in France suddenly extinguishes, the speaker focuses on the English side, which remains tranquil. He trades visual imagery for aural imagery, describing the "grating roar" of the pebbles being pulled out by the waves. He finishes the first stanza by calling the music of the world an "eternal note of sadness."

            The next stanza flashes back to ancient Greece, where Sophocles heard this same sound on the Aegean Sea and was inspired by it to write his plays about human misery.

            Stanza three introduces the poem's main metaphor, with: "The Sea of Faith/Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore." The phrase suggests that faith is fading from society like the tide is from the shore. The speaker laments this decline of faith through melancholy diction.

            In the final stanza, the speaker directly addresses his beloved who sits next to him, asking that they always be true to one another and to the world that is laid out before them. He warns, however, that the world's beauty is only an illusion since it is, in fact, a battlefield full of people fighting in absolute darkness.

Direct and Indirect Speech

Night of the Scorpion by Nissim Ezekiel

Night of the Scorpion

 by Nissim Ezekiel

I remember the night my mother

was stung by a scorpion. Ten hours

of steady rain had driven him

to crawl beneath a sack of rice.

Parting with his poison – flash

of diabolic tail in the dark room –

he risked the rain again.

The peasants came like swarms of flies

and buzzed the name of God a hundred times

to paralyse the Evil One.

With candles and with lanterns

throwing giant scorpion shadows

on the mud-baked walls

they searched for him: he was not found.

They clicked their tongues.

With every movement that the scorpion made his poison moved in Mother’s blood, they said.

May he sit still, they said

May the sins of your previous birth

be burned away tonight, they said.

May your suffering decrease

the misfortunes of your next birth, they said.

May the sum of all evil

balanced in this unreal world

against the sum of good

become diminished by your pain.

May the poison purify your flesh

of desire, and your spirit of ambition,

they said, and they sat around

on the floor with my mother in the centre,

the peace of understanding on each face.

More candles, more lanterns, more neighbours,

more insects, and the endless rain.

My mother twisted through and through,

groaning on a mat.

My father, sceptic, rationalist,

trying every curse and blessing,

powder, mixture, herb and hybrid.

He even poured a little paraffin

upon the bitten toe and put a match to it.

I watched the flame feeding on my mother.

I watched the holy man perform his rites to tame the poison with an incantation.

After twenty hours

it lost its sting.

My mother only said

Thank God the scorpion picked on me

And spared my children.

Summary

            The poet remembers the dark rainy night when his mother was stung by a scorpion. It was raining heavily, a scorpion had taken shelter, under a sack of rice. When the poet’s mother went to get rice from the granary, the scorpion bit her and disappeared in the rain.

            The neighboring peasants came in large numbers with candles and lanterns. They chanted the name of God to paralyze the evil one, they wanted to stop the scorpion from moving. They believed the effect of the poison would increase with the movement of the scorpion. They wanted to kill it, but it wasn’t found anywhere.

            The poet’s mother was in great pain. The people prayed that all the sins of her previous birth be burnt. They believed the world to be unreal and wanted the pain to absolve all her sins, and decrease the sufferings of the next birth also. More and more people walked in. The poet’s mother continued to suffer and was in great pain.

The villagers were superstitious, but the poet’s father was a disbeliever, he doubted everything especially the claims of religion. He was a rational person, his views were based on reason and logic. He tried every powder, mixture, herb, and an amalgam of herbs and prayers. He poured a little paraffin upon the bitten toe and put a match to it. The poet watched the flame feeding on his mother, he also watched the holy man trying to control the effect of poison with words in prayer or magic and performed his rites. After twenty hours the sting was lost, the poison became powerless and the mother recovered. She forgot all her sufferings and her pain. She thanked God and was grateful that the scorpion had spared her children.