Iswaran, Mahendra’s servant, was very devoted to him. He was not only a very welltrained and wonderful cook but also a good story teller. He was fond of reading thrillers and his narrations were influenced from those styles. He had to give up his job due to a practical joke played on Mahendra, his master. Life was not possible for Mahendra without him, as he was his asset, and he started living totally isolated.

“On Killing a Tree” is a sensitive poem. The poet persuades the reader not to destroy trees and equates it with “killing” a human being. He says that a plant takes sunlight, water, air and nutrients from the soil to gradually become a huge tree. It develops a strong trunk and gets numerous leaves.
Merely cutting the trunk of the tree does not kill it. When a tree is cut, the sap flows out just like a wounded man bleeds. Once the wound heals, new branches and tiny leaves grow from there which grow into trees.
In order to destroy a tree, it has to be uprooted. The roots which are white in colour and are damp due to the moisture that they get from the soil are hidden in a pit in the Earth. These roots are the most sensitive part of the tree as they bind it to the earth. In order to kill the tree, these roots have to be detached from the soil.
Once the roots are detached, the tree starts dying, It withers, dries up with the action of heat and wind, twists, hardens and finally, dies.

 Iswaran built up the ghost story by first preparing a special dinner meant to feed the spirits of ancestors on an auspicious day. When Mahendra had just finished the delicious meal, he suddenly started to narrate how he sometimes saw ghosts at night. He told details about having seen an ugly female ghost holding a foetus in her arms.

Agra
20th April, 20XX
Sunday, 6:00 pm

Dear Diary,
They say that India is emerging as a major economy in the world. But it is more true that India has the largest army of poor people, paupers and beggars. Hence, millions of people in India are condemned to begging. I am shocked to see hundreds of shabby looking people in rags shouting in woeful tones, “Baba, give me something for God’s sake”. No country can become great if its children are condemned to lead such miserable lives. If millions of children live in such inhuman conditions, dirt and poverty, it is a matter of shame for the government and the civilized society of India. Every child must have a constitutional right to get proper food, clothes and education. It is true that begging has also become a lucrative profession for some bad characters. They kidnap small children and raise them to beggars. The other side of the story is also true. Millions of hands in this country don’t get any jobs to earn a living. They resort to begging. Kit

My Childhood” is an extract taken from the biography of APJ Abdul Kalam - ‘Wings of Fire’. He was a great scientist and also the 14th President of India. He was born in a middle - class Muslim family in 1931 in the island town of Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu. In his childhood he was greatly influenced by his parents, his teachers and his friends. His father, Jainulabdeen, was not highly educated but he was a generous and kind person. He was not rich but provided a secure childhood to Abdul and his siblings. Abdul inherited honesty and self-discipline from his father and faith in goodness and deep kindness from his mother.

Kalam earned his first wages by working as a helping hand to his cousin, Samsuddin, who distributed newspapers in Rameswaram.

In his childhood he had three close friends- Ramanadha Sastry,Aravindam and Sivaprakashan. Once when he was in fifth standard, a new teacher asked him not to sit in the front row along with the high caste Brahmin boys. Abdul found Ramanadha Sastry weeping as he went to the last row. This made a lasting impression on Abdul.

Abdul was also greatly influenced by his science teacher, Sivasubramania Iyer. He learnt the lesson of breaking social barriers from him. Iyer invited him to his home for a meal. His wife refused to serve food to a Muslim boy in her pure kitchen. Iyer served him with his own hands and sat down beside him to eat his meal. He convinced his wife to serve meal with her own hands and thus was successful in changing her conservative attitude.

For higher education, Abdul Kalam sought permission from his father to leave Rameswaram and study at the district headquarters in Ramanathapuram. His father said that Abdul had to go a long way in life just like a seagull bird which flies long distances. He calmed down APJ’s reluctant mother by quoting Kahlil Gibran’s poem ‘Your children’. He said that her children could not be dominated by her because they had their own thoughts. They did not belong to her but were a result of life’s desire for itself. He asked her to give them freedom to fulfil their thoughts.

Before separation the child was very happy and excited at the fair. He was fascinated with all the things that were displayed at the stalls. He wanted to have all the things like his favourite toys, sweets, flowers, etc. He also wanted to go for a ride.

Where does the traveller find himself? What problem does he face?

The traveller finds himself in the yellow woods at a point where the road forks into two. 
The problem that he faces is that he cannot decide which road to take to continue his journey since it is not possible for him to travel both roads at the same time.

First of all, the child sees on his way to the fair a toy  shop. Then he sees dragon flies in the mustard field. He is attracted by the little insects along the footpath. In a grove, flower petals fall on him and he starts gathering them.

Everytime the child lags behind because his parents keep moving. Everytime they say , “Come , child ,come.”

The poet chose the other road because the first one was travelled by many.He was adventurous and chose the road which looked less travelled by people. It appeared to be more fascinating for him.

The two roads symbolize the choices that one has to make in life. It is very important to make the right choice because we can never retrace our path and go back. One road would lead on to another and there is no coming back.

The poet opined that both the roads were same. They were equally travelled and there was no difference between them.

No, till now I have never been in a situation in which I had to make a difficult choice. Perhaps I am still too young to make an independent choice. Yes, I think later or sooner I will have difficult choices to make. After completing my general education, I will have to make choice of profession whether I should become and engineer or doctor or something else. I will have hundreds of option before me. Then it will be difficult to make a choice in between them. I will make choice according to my capabilities and strong points at that time. I will choose a path that gives me satisfaction and mental peace. I will not join the rat race for money. Like the poet in poem, I will choose a challenging and unexplored path in my life.

having or showing the symptoms of a fever

Margie hated school because she had a mechanical teacher. It was in her house and she was supposed to sit alone in that room and complete her homework and assignments. The part of the mechanical teacher that margie hated the most was the slot. The slot was the place where she had to put her homework and test papers.

She thought that the old schools must have been fun because the students used to sit together in classroom. They had a separate building for school where they enjoyed loved and shouted in the schoolyard. They help one another other in homework.

Vikram took a cheap, affordable hotel room on rent and as he was tired from the journey, he slept for a few hours. The next morning he visited two temples in Kathmandu along with Mr.Shah’s son and nephew. One of the temples was a pilgrimage for Hindus and the other one of the Buddhists.

Countable Noun

A noun which can be counted in cardinal numbers (1, 2, 3 . . .) is called a countable noun.  

Example Countable Noun:

• I bought a book of neurology.
• The book has 269 pages in it.
• It has 39 chapters in it.
• Each chapter covers 5 topics.

A noun that cannot be counted with the cardinal numbers (1, 2, 3 . . .)  is called an uncountable noun.

Example Un-countable Noun:

• I need some drinking water.
• Have some juice, please.
• Do you need some gas for your car?
• We need a lot of money for the business.

In 1938, when All India Radio started, Bismillah Khan got the big break of performing for the All India Radio.

In the chapter, The Lost Child, the child was tempted by many things but he asked for them only in slow murmurs. This shows that he was scared of his father and could not express his demands as rightfully as some other children do.

With the country under lockdown, Children spend a significant part of the day in front of the screen, taking online lessons on Zoom or Google Classrooms or whatever online platform the school has opted for.

One day you return from school, having taken a board exam or a class test or spent just a regular day, and the next day you hear the school is going to be shut due to a nationwide lockdown to restrict the spread of COVID-19 pandemic.

Before you can even process the news, you realise life as you knew it–early mornings, rushing out to board the school bus, the clamour of meeting friends, sharing tiffin, the playground, cracking jokes in the middle of class–is all set to change. For over three weeks now, you have been cooped up at home, with your immediate family and barely any contact with the outside world. This is something neither your parents, nor your grandparents have ever experienced in the past, so even their coping skills are rather raw. Such unprecedented moments have neither been expected, nor adequately prepared for.

This has been the story of students in many parts of India, especially in cities, which are better served by technology than rural areas. Children, especially in middle and senior school, spend a significant part of the day in front of the screen, taking online lessons on Zoom or Google Classrooms or whatever online platform the school has opted for. In places where access to technology is limited, schools and teachers are trying to reach out through their phones, recording lessons and sending them to students on WhatsApp.

Here, your home that was most likely your comfort zone, has changed character. School has now come home, so it doubles up as a classroom. While parents are posting happy pictures of children as young as five or six sitting in front of a laptop, transfixed by online classes, mental health professionals sound a word of caution.

An interview has become an indispensable feature of journalism today. Some call it a great art. In the same way, some celebrities, criminals and victims are interviewed. The media interviews celebrities if they are involved in some care. The celebrities despise the interview as an unwarranted intrusion on their lives. It is like stealing of their souls and diminishes and tarnishes their status. Some people like V. S. Naipaul are wounded by interviews and feel a part of their personalities stolen. Lewis Carroll was said to have a just horror of the interviewer and he never consented to be interviewed, Caroline, the wife of Rudyard Kipling said that an interview is vile, crime and all offence. No respectable person, would ask it, much less give it. On the other hand H. G. Wells referred it to be an inter-viewing or deal. Nobel Laureate Saul Bellow took the interview like the thumb-prints on his windpipe. Thus opinions on the interview vary considerably.