LIFE AND LITERATURE

THE GLASS PALACE The Glass Palace  (2001) by leading Indian author Amitav Gosh is a historical novel and family saga that looks at the creation of contemporary Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) through two families, one Burmese royalty, the other Indian. It extends a period of 115 years. Along with mass critical acclaim,  The Glass Palace  has been translated into 25 languages. Its themes include colonialism, heartbreak, and personal grit. The historical novel is divided into seven parts. While  The Glass Palace  has hundreds of characters, one of its main protagonists is an 11 year old orphan boy named Rajkumar; he is a refugee from India with an entrepreneurial drive and a romantic heart. The novels opens to a scene of British cannons going off in the suburbs of Mandalay, the capital of what was called Burma, right before the English invasion of 1885. While Rajkumar overheard some speculation that the British were unhappy with trade deals proposed...

Mr. Know All by William Somerset Maugham  The story takes place in international waters on an ocean going liner sailing from San Francisco, U.S.A to Yokohama, Japan on the Pacific Ocean. As the war had just ended, it was difficult to get accommodations. Therefore, the narrator had to share a cabin with a total stranger, but he expected him to be one of his own countrymen. Instead, he was deeply shocked to realize it was a chatty Levantine of oriental origin, Mr. Max Kelada, who was not British, but a native of one of the British colonies (he did have a British passport). Although his origin isn't stated precisely, his name suggests middle-eastern origin. The narrator was prepared to dislike Mr. Kelada even before he saw him. When he first entered the cabin, he saw Mr. Kelada's luggage and toilet things that had already been unpacked. The man's name and the sight of his things aroused a strong repulsion in him since he was prejudiced against all non- Britons, f...

A Doll’s House                                                -Henrik Ibsen A Doll’s House  opens on Christmas Eve. Nora Helmer enters her well-furnished living room—the setting of the entire play—carrying several packages. Torvald Helmer, Nora’s husband, comes out of his study when he hears her arrive. He greets her playfully and affectionately, but then chides her for spending so much money on Christmas gifts. Their conversation reveals that the Helmers have had to be careful with money for many years, but that Torvald has recently obtained a new position at the bank where he works that will afford them a more comfortable lifestyle. Visit of Dr.Rank: Helene, the maid, announces that the Helmers’ dear friend Dr. Rank has come to visit. At the ...

VOWELS             Generally sounds can be divided into ‘vowels’ and ‘consonants’. Traditionally, a, e, i, o, u are cited as vowels and the others as consonants. This statement is based on spelling rather than on the fundamental nature of sounds. In English phonology, there are twenty vowel sounds and twenty four consonants. Thus there are forty four speech sounds in English. Vowels:             Vowels are speech sounds, the production of which does not involve any audible friction. The air-stream from the lungs has a free escape. Vowels are made with open approximation, that is, with free flow of air with no obstruction anywhere in the air-passage.             A vowel is an indispensable part of any word. There cannot be any wo4rd without a vowel sound. For producing different vowels, one can use the tongue, li...

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets                                              - J.K Rowling Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets   begins when Harry is spending a miserable summer with his only remaining family, the Dursleys. During a dinner party hosted by his uncle and aunt, Harry is visited by Dobby, a house-elf. Dobby warns Harry not to return to Hogwarts, the magical school for wizards that Harry attended the previous year. Harry politely disregards the warning, and Dobby wreaks havoc in the kitchen, infuriating the Dursleys. The Dursleys angrily imprison Harry in his room for the rest of the summer. Luckily, Harry's friend Ron Weasley steals Harry away in a flying car, and Harry happily spends the rest of the summer at the Weasley home. While shopping for school supplies with the Weasleys, Harry has two unfortunate encounters. He first encou...