Half a Rupee Worth Short Story by R.K. NARAYAN

Half a Rupee Worth

Short Story by R.K. NARAYAN

            In Half a Rupee Worth by R.K. Narayan we have the theme of persistence, greed, corruption, materialism, and desperation. Taken from his Under the Banyan Tree and Other Stories collection the story is narrated in the third person by an unnamed narrator and from the beginning of the story, the reader realises that Narayan may be exploring the theme of persistence. Subbiah has been working in his shop since his father owned it. When he wanted to pursue a life outside the shop his father refused to let him. This may be important as rather than complaining to his father Subbiah persisted and continued to work in the shop. Something he managed to do every day. It is also noticeable that though Subbiah is disgruntled with the new law (Price and Food Control) he manages to make his shop a Fair Price Grain Depot. Which would further suggest that Subbiah is persistent? Where others might have given up and pursued a different career. Subbiah doesn’t. He persists. However, it is noticeable that the reason for Subbiah’s persistence is because he is greedy. He wants more and more of everything. Particularly money and property even though he has more than he needs.

            It is through Subbiah’s greed that he becomes corrupt and begins to doctor the forms he has to submit to the government to show he is in compliance with regulations. If anything Subbiah’s greed and corruption become the focus of his life. He continues to give his wife and children material goods while the war continues. Which may be important as most people during the war would have had to make sacrifices? Something that is noticeable with Subbiah’s customers. In today’s terms, Subbiah may be called a profiteer. It is also interesting that Subbiah still pays praise to God even though many critics might suggest that he is not living a life that would please God. Subbiah is driven by money and wealth. Something that would be contradictory to the teachings of God. It would also seem that the most important person in Subbiah’s life is himself, then his family. At all stages of the story, he is more concerned about making money than he is in helping people. Something that he is well able to do with all the rice and property he has. It is as though Subbiah is blinded by greed and his desire to make more money so that he can buy more material goods and property.

            What is also interesting about the story is that Subbiah’s wealthy friends agree with him. That he is being inappropriately treated by the government. This may be important as it highlights that Subbiah’s friends not only have the same opinion as Subbiah but they also have no identification with those who may be struggling during the war. It is as though there is a class system in operation with Subbiah and his friends being at the upper end of the class system and those who are struggling to be at the lower end. Neither Subbiah nor his friends appear to be altruistic in nature. Again money appears to be the primary goal even though Subbiah has more money and property than he needs. Narayan also never gives the reader an explanation into why Subbiah is so greedy but he may not have to. By omitting an explanation for Subbiah’s greed Narayan may be suggesting that greed for some people is part of human nature. There does not necessarily have to be a driving factor for an individual to be greedy.

            The end of the story is also interesting as the reader gets a full insight into just how greedy Subbiah is. He argues with the customer over the price of a seer of rice. The difference is only eight annas. An amount that means nothing to Subbiah but he is not prepared to sell a seer of rice for a half a rupee. No matter how desperate the customer is. For Subbiah everything is business with little consideration for the needs of his customers. The fact that Subbiah goes to one of his godowns and ends up dying because of the heavy sacks of rice falling on top of him and killing him really sums up how greedy and selfish Subbiah is. He argued with the customer outside his shop over eight annas yet he had bags and bags of rice in his godown. One seer sold to the customer for half a rupee would not have hurt Subbiah. Though Subbiah never thought of things like that. Everything for Subbiah was about profit and becoming richer. People were just an avenue to profit for Subbiah. As mentioned his primary concern in life was to make money. The more the better. At no stage does Subbiah give anything back to his community. Something that is noticeable by his arguing with the customer over eight annas. An amount that had no real meaning to Subbiah but meant a lot to the customer. It is Subbiah’s greed at the end of the story which eventually kills him.

The Gift of India

The Gift of India 

                                  -Sarojini Naidu

Being one of the most eminent patriots, freedom fighter and poet of modern India, the “Nightingale of India” succeeds in capturing the true essence of the country in her poetic world. Sarojini Naidu’s poetry is an amalgamation of strong emotions of love, patriotism, heroism and strong lyricism. “The Gift of India” is a poem written in 1915 which embodies the spirit of patriotism for the motherland. In this poem, Mother India is proud of her brave and fearless sons who have made a number of great contributions, not only to the country but on a global level.

In the opening stanza of the poem, Mother India raises a question to the world asking if she has withheld any of her riches like clothes, grain or gold from them. She asks if she has denied any form of sacrifice to the world that was needed for a better tomorrow. She has promptly given away the courageous sons of the nation she calls her ‘Priceless treasures’ to the eastern and western countries without any hesitation to honour her international commitments to ensure harmony in the world. She talks of her brave sons who have readily accepted every challenge that came their way to cater to their global commitments as a result of which they are lying buried in foreign soils. Mother India agreed to send the Indian soldiers to the land of chaos, death, and destruction to protect the nation’s integrity and prestige. She has given up the sons born out of her womb to the world for the sake of the country’s esteem and commitments.

In the second stanza, Mother India laments the death of the heroic soldiers who fought in the war with the utmost valor and zeal and are now lying buried in their graves in foreign lands like pearls in their shells. Over one million Indian troops from Britain’s colonial empire had served the British Army in the First World War out of which around 75,000 soldiers died in foreign lands. Some of them are buried along the tranquil Persian sea while others are scattered like shells on the Egyptian sands. They lie pale and colourless with hands that have been broken on the battlefield. There are other brave soldiers whose lifeless bodies lie scattered like flowers in the blood-tainted meadows of Flanders and France. The bleeding Indian soldiers chose not only to sacrifice their blood and sweat for their motherland but also to prove the fact that India has never backed out from its promised commitment. The selfless sacrifice of the Indian soldiers shows that India has always lived up to its expectations by proving its loyalty to its global allies.

Mother India asks rhetorical questions to express the fact that there is no possible way in which the world can measure the intensity of her grief. The world cannot possibly comprehend her grief and suffering that she had to face at the loss of her martyred sons. Even though she is torn by the grief in her heart, she is exhilarated by a sense of pride offered by the soldiers. Her pride in the heroism and spirit of her sons overwhelms her sense of despair and sorrow. She bears immeasurable pain and anguish in her heart at the thought of parting ways with her sons. However, she prays for a world in which there is no place for fights, hatred or terror. And the thought of a better world in which peace and harmony are restored gives her hope. Here, she is anticipating their victory which will put an end to the cruelties in the world. At the same time, she is saddened by the thought of the soldiers who are going to sacrifice their lives to bring glory to the country. This whole stanza has an optimistic note suggesting that the sacrifice of today shall succeed in making a better tomorrow.

In the final stanza, Mother India vehemently expresses her sense of pride in the achievements of the Indian soldiers. Even though she has suffered a lot, a hope for a better future in which peace is restored gives her satisfaction. The poem ends on a note of optimism and hope. Mother India hopes that when the world of terror and hate shall cease, a new world will be formed in which peace and harmony would bring joy in people’s lives. Mother India expects the world to respect and remember the soldiers who fought bravely in the wars and sacrificed their lives for a peaceful future. She also hopes that the contribution of the Indian soldiers will be recognized by the world. She wants people to pay their homage and gratitude to the soldiers so that they can be immortalized in the history of the world for their valor and heroism.

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The Far and the Near Summary

The Far and the Near Summary

Thomas Wolfe

             “The Far and the Near” is a 1935 short story by American author Thomas Wolfe. Set in the rural American Midwest, it concerns a train engineer who, over the course of his life, comes to deeply romanticize and idealize a rural farmhouse and its inhabitants as he passes it each day along his route. At the end of his career, the engineer goes to meet the mother and daughter who live in the house; the contradiction between his imagination and their real selves stuns him. The short story falls squarely in the modernist tradition for its close examination of the fallibility of perception and the anticlimax of American romanticism.

            The short story begins with a description of a small town in rural America. Set apart from the town by a long dirt road in a small, idyllic wooden cottage, painted white and with green shutters. In the summer, the cottage lies in the shade of three great trees. Each day, the engineer passes just after two o’clock as his train gains momentum, having just left the station at the nearby town. For more than two decades, the engineer blows the train’s whistle to greet the woman and her daughter who live in the house. The daughter starts as an infant in the mother’s arms, growing into a woman who joins her mother in waving back. The picturesque arrangement becomes a central fixture in the engineer’s daily life, tantamount to consistency, stability, beauty, and hope as he endures the harshness of the world. The engineer recalls four tragic incidents in his life when the train fatally struck innocent passers-by. He relates that the sight of the house and the women saved him from despair each time.

            As the engineer nears retirement, he grows certain that he knows the whole lives of the woman and her daughter, even feeling something like paternal love. So confident is he that he plans to visit them on the first day of his retirement to convey how important they have been to him. At last, he retires and boards a train into the town near the house. As he walks through the town, he begins to question his choice: the town seems as though he has never visited it; indeed, he hasn’t beyond his thousands of trips on only one path along its outskirts. When he reaches the women’s house, he grows anxious but decides to complete his mission. The mother opens the door and seems nothing like he ever imagined from afar: she looks suspicious, hardened, and ugly, and speaks harshly. The engineer immediately regrets his choice. He tries to explain that he is the man at whom they have waved over the years but struggles to speak clearly. With obvious reluctance, the woman allows him to come inside and meet her daughter. He tries to talk to them, but they regard him coldly.

            The engineer leaves the house perturbed from the unhappy meeting. He sinks into despair, believing that the only facet of his world that he ever regarded as perfect and true has been destroyed. As the story closes, his outlook on life becomes wholly pessimistic.

If clauses conditionals rules, examples

If clauses conditionals rules, examples

If clauses conditional

o   If clauses conditional sentences

o   If clauses all types

o   Form

o   Examples types 1, 2 and 3

o   If clause at the beginning

o   If clause at the end

o   If clause Type 1

o   If clause Type 2

o   If clause Type 3

If-clauses - Conditional sentences

If clauses =  main clause and if-clause. There are 3 Types: If clauses Type 1, If clauses Type 2, If clauses Type 3.

o   If clauses all Types

o   If clause Type 1

o   If clause Type 2

o   If clause Type 3

If-clauses all Types

If clauses Type 1 (one): Situations that can really happen at present or in future (real).
If clauses Type 2 (two):  Situations will probably never happen at present or in future (unreal).
If clauses Type 3 (three): Situations that did not happen in the past. 

Form

If-clause Type	If-clause	Main clause
If-clause Type I:	Simple Present	will + infinitive
If-clause Type II:	Simple Past	would + infinitive
If-clause Type III:	Past Perfect	would + have + Past Participle

Examples If-clauses Type I, Type II,Type III

If-Clause at the beginning of the sentence
If-clause Type	If-clause	Main clause
If-clause Type I	If the game is good,	I will play it.
If-clause Type II	If the game was good,	I would play it.
If-clause Type III	If the game had been good,	I would have played it.
If-clause at the end of the sentence
If-clause Type	Main clause	If-Clause
If-clause Type I	I will play the game	if it is good.
If-clause Type II	I would play the game	if it was good.
If-clause Type III	I would have played the game	if it had been good.

Form If Clause Type 1

Situations that can really happen at present or in future (real).

Form If Clause Type 1

If-Clause	Main clause
Simple Present	will + infinitive

Example If Clause Type 1

If the game is good, I will play it.
I will play the game if  it is good.

If Clause Type 2

Situations will probably never happen at present or in future (unreal).

Form If Clause Type 2

If-clause	Main clause
Simple Past	would + infinitive

Examples If Clause Type 2

If I lived in Australia, I would be a sheep farmer.
I would be a sheep farmer if I lived in Australia.

If Clause Type 3

Situations that did not happen in the past. 

If Clause Type 3

If-Clause	Main clause
Past Perfect	would + have + Past Participle

Examples If Clause Type 3

If I had had nothing to do, I would have come.
I would have come If I had had nothing to do.

Conditional sentences, if-clauses type I, II, III

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Conditional sentences

Conditional sentences are sometimes confusing for learners of English as a second language.

Watch out:

1.     Which type of conditional sentences is it?

2.     Where is the if-clause (e.g. at the beginning or at the end of the conditional sentence)?

There are three types of conditional sentences.

type	condition
I	condition possible to fulfill
II	condition in theory possible to fulfill
III	condition not possible to fulfill (too late)

1. Form

type	if-clause	main clause
I	Simple Present	will-future or (Modal + infinitive)
II	Simple Past	would + infinitive *
III	Past Perfect	would + have + past participle *

2. Examples (if-clause at the beginning)

type	if clause	main clause
I	If I study,	I will pass the exam.
II	If I studied,	I would pass the exam.
III	If I had studied,	I would have passed the exam.

3. Examples (if-clause at the end)

type	main clause	if-clause
I	I will pass the exam	if I study.
II	I would pass the exam	if I studied.
III	I would have passed the exam	if I had studied.

4. Examples (affirmative and negative sentences)

type		Examples
		long forms	short/contracted forms
I	+	If I study, I will pass the exam.	If I study, I'll pass the exam.
	-	If I study, I will not fail the exam. If I do not study, I will fail the exam.	If I study, I won't fail the exam. If I don't study, I'll fail the exam.
II	+	If I studied, I would pass the exam.	If I studied, I'd pass the exam.
	-	If I studied, I would not fail the exam. If I did not study, I would fail the exam.	If I studied, I wouldn't fail the exam. If I didn't study, I'd fail the exam.
III	+	If I had studied, I would have passed the exam.	If I'd studied, I'd have passed the exam.
	-	If I had studied, I would not have failed the exam. If I had not studied, I would have failed the exam.	If I'd studied, I wouldn't have failed the exam. If I hadn't studied, I'd have failed the exam.

* We can substitute could or might for would (should, may or must are sometimes possible, too).

·        I would pass the exam.

·        I could pass the exam.

·        I might pass the exam.

·        I may pass the exam.

·        I should pass the exam.

·        I must pass the exam.