MUNSHI PREMCHAND

MUNSHI PREMCHAND
A pioneer of modern Hindi and Urdu social fiction, Munshi Premchandâs real name was Dhanpat Rai. He wrote nearly 300 stories and novels. Among his best known novels are: Sevasadan, Rangmanch, Gaban, Nirmala and Godan. Much of Premchandâs best work is to be found among his 250 or so short stories, collected in Hindi under the title Manasarovar.Three of his novels have been made into films.Premchandâs literary career started as a freelancer in Urdu. He was born at Lamahi near Banaras (now Varanasi) on 31st July,1880. His father Munshi Ajaib Lal was a clerk in the postal department. Premchandâs early education was in a madarsa under a maulvi, where he learnt Urdu. Premchand was only eight years old when his mother died. His grandmother took the responsibility of raising him but she too died soon. He was married when he was 15 and in the 9th grade . His father also died and after passing the intermediate he had to stop his study. He got a job as a teacher in the primary school. In 1919, he passed his B.A., with English, Persian and History. After a series of promotions he became Deputy Inspectors of Schools. In response to Mahatma Gandhiâs call of non-cooperation with the British he quit his job. After that he devoted his full attention to writing. His first story appeared in the magazine Zamana published from Kanpur.In his early short stories he depicted the patriotic upsurge that was sweeping the land in the first decade of the past century. Soz-e-Watan, a collection of patriotic stories published by Premchand in 1907, attracted the attention of the British Government In 1914, when Premchand switched over to Hindi, he had already established his reputation as a fiction writer in Urdu. While writing Urdu novels and short stories he emphasised in presenting the realities of life and he made the Indian villages his theme of writing. His novels describe the problems of the urban middle-class and the countryâs villages and their problems. He also emphasised on the Hindu-Muslim unity. His famous works include Godan, Maidan-e-Amal, Bay-wah, Chaugaan etc.It would not be wrong to say that Premchand was the Father of Urdu short- stories. Short stories or afsanas were started by Premchand. As with his novels, his afsanas also mirror the society that he lived in. With a simple and flowing writing some of his works depict excellent use of satire and humour. His later works used very simple words and he started including Hindi words too to honestly potray his characters. His famous afsanas are Qaatil Ki Maan, Zewar Ka Dibba, Gilli Danda, Eidgaah, Namak Ka Daroga and Kafan. His collected stories have been published as Prem Pachisi, Prem Battisi, Wardaat and Zaad-e-Raah. Premchand was the first Hindi author to introduce realism in his writings. He pioneered the new form - fiction with a social purpose.He supplemented Gandhijiâs work in the political and social fields by adopting his revolutionary ideas as themes for his literary writings. Besides being a great novelist,Premchand was also a social reformer and thinker.His greatness lies in the fact that his writings embody social purpose and social criticism rather than mere entertainment. Literature according to him is a powerful means of educating public opinion.He believed in social evolution and his ideal was equal opportunities for all.Premchand died in 1936 and has since been studied both in India and abroad as one of the greatest writers of the century.

Adaptations of Premchand's works

Satyajit Ray filmed two of Premchand's works– Sadgati and Shatranj Ke Khiladi. Sadgati (Salvation) is a short story revolving around poor Dukhi, who dies of exhaustion while hewing wood for a paltry favor. Shatranj ke Khiladi (The Chess Players) revolved around the decadence ofnawabi Lucknow, where the obsession with a game consumes the players, making them oblivious of their responsibilities in the midst of a crisis.

Sevasadan (first published in 1918) was made into a film with M.S. Subbulakshmi in the lead role. The novel is set in Varanasi, the holy city of Hindus. Sevasadan ("House of Service") is an institute built for the daughters of courtesans. The lead of the novel is a beautiful, intelligent and talented girl called Suman. She belongs to a high caste. She is married to a much older, tyrannical man. She realizes that a loveless marriage is just like prostitution except that there is only one client. Bholi, a courtesan, lives opposite Suman. Suman realizes that Bholi is "outside purdah", while she is "inside it". Suman leaves her husband and becomes a successful entertainer of gentlemen. But after a brief period of success, she ends up as a victim of a political drama played out by self-righteous Hindu social reformers and moralists.

Premchand also worked with the film director Himanshu Rai of Bombay Talkies, one of the founders of Bollywood.

The Actor Factor Theatre Company, a young Delhi based theatre group, staged Kafan in 2010 in New Delhi. It is an original stage adaptation of Premchand's short story. Kafan is a dark comedy. In the play, puppetry is explored to depict the tussle between two classes and the plight of Budhia, who is caught in the crossfire. Bleakness of hope in the story and awfulness of the father-son duo find a delicate balance. At times the situations break into morbid humor. In the end a wine-house becomes the stage for Ghisu (father) and Madhav's (son) rebellious dance, defying not only the laws of the land but also that of the Gods.

Eassy of Environmental pollution

ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION

Our environment means the surrounding of our house where we live, the surrounding of our village where we live or the surrounding of our town or city where we live.

It our surrounding gets polluted we suffer from many kinds of disease and sickness. If our surrounding gets highly polluted, our life gets endangered.

Environmental pollution is the biggest menace to the human race on this planet today. It means adding impurity to environment. The environment consists of earth, water, air, plants and animals. If we pollute them, then the existence of man and nature will be hampered.

It is true that trees are being cut down rapidly. Our earth is becoming warmer. If pollution continues, the day is not far when our earth will be a boiling pan and become a desert. Or it will be covered with sea water causing destruction of mankind.

 Effects of Pollution

Effects of pollution on the climate ar/dangeror.s – though so slow and gradual as to be beyond easy recognition.” Air pollution results in the steady rise in the amount of carbon dioxide and dust particles in the atmosphere. Increase in carbon dioxide raises the earth’s temperature while increase in the dust particles decreases it. An increase either way means change away from the mean. According to an estimate dust particles can absorb 3 to 4 per cent of the sun’s radiation, and thus lower the earth’s temperature by about 0’4°C.

Environmental pullution is no longer only a fashionable catch-Word. It has infact become one of the most formidable threats to mankind. With the growing development of technology and growing world population, pollution is no longer restricted to a certain number of industrial countries but affects the ecological system of vtiit areas. As we become increasingly aware of our limited natural roiources, the protection and preservation of nature becomes a world-wide concern.

Article on Global Warming

GLOBAL WARMING

Global warming is the unusually rapid increase in Earth’s average surface temperature over the past century primarily due to the greenhouse gases released as people burn fossil fuels. The global average surface temperature rose 0.6 to 0.9 degrees Celsius (1.1 to 1.6° F) between 1906 and 2005, and the rate of temperature increase has nearly doubled in the last 50 years. Temperature are certain to go up further.

Over the last three decades of the 20th century, gross domestic product per capita and population growth were the main drivers of increases in greenhouse gas emissions.CO₂ emissions are continuing to rise due to the burning of fossil fuels and land-use change.Emissions can be attributed to different regions. The two figures opposite show annual greenhouse gas emissions for the year 2005, including land-use change. Attribution of emissions due to land-use change is a controversial issue.

Emissions scenarios, estimates of changes in future emission levels of greenhouse gases, have been projected that depend upon uncertain economic, sociological, technological, and natural developments. In most scenarios, emissions continue to rise over the century, while in a few, emissions are reduced.^. Fossil fuel reserves are abundant, and will not limit carbon emissions in the 21st century.Emission scenarios, combined with modelling of the carbon cycle, have been used to produce estimates of how atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases might change in the future. Using the six IPCC SRES "marker" scenarios, models suggest that by the year 2100, the atmospheric concentration of CO₂ could range between 541 and 970 ppm. This is an increase of 90–250% above the concentration in the year 1750.

The popular media and the public often confuse global warming with ozone depletion, i.e., the destruction of stratospheric ozone by chlorofluorocarbons. Although there are a few areas of linkage, the relationship between the two is not strong. Reduced stratospheric ozone has had a slight cooling influence on surface temperatures, while increased tropospheric ozonehas had a somewhat larger warming effect.

EASSY ON UNEMLOYMENT IN INDIA

UNEMPLOYMENT IN INDIA

The problem of unemployment is the most serious problem facing our country. A large number of educated and uneducated people loiter about in search of some job. They are willing to work but they cannot get it. There is unemployment in cities, towns and even in villages.

The problem of unemployment means the problem of providing work to those who are willing to work. A large number of educated and uneducated people, who are capable of work and are also willing to do it, roam here and there without any job. So the problem has assumed an acute form.

There is a large number of people who are either partly employed or wholly unemployed. The lives of such people, as well as of their families, are extremely miserable. India cannot claim to be a welfare state so long as this problem remains unsolved. Before discussing the ways and means of solving this problem, let us first examine the causes which have created it.

It is a well known fact that ours is a thickly populated country. The population is increasing by leaps and bounds. But jobs and gainful avenues cannot be created in the same proportion. So, naturally, a large section of the people is left unemployed. Moreover, our education system is also responsible for this problem. The problem of educated unemployment is peculiar to India. India is only country in the world where even highly educated persons fail to to get employment. Every year thousands and thousands of graduates pass out of schools and colleges. They are unfit for any work, except office work. All of them cannot be absorbed in services. This increases employment.

The problem of unemployment is mainly an economic one. It is essential, therefore, that the economic policy of the country be overhauled. In our country, labor is available in abundance. We should provide avenues for employment for them through cottage and small-scale industries. besides this, stress must be laid on family planning. Every effort must be made to check the rapid rise in population. This will help a great deal in the solution of this problem.

More stress should be laid on technical and vocational education. The present bookish education which produces clerks alone should be restricted. When people get technical and vocational education, they will not hanker after services on completing their education, they will come out well prepared to stand on their own legs. The problem will be half-solved, if this suggestion is implemented.

Our joint-family system is gradually breaking down. This may be a good social change from certain points of view, but front the point of view of unemployment it is harmful. When we live jointly, some family members get employed in family professions. One who gets a job, supports others who may not be equally fortunate. We should not be hasty in breaking down this system.

Our country cannot advance economically, politically, or socially, unless this problem is solved. Many a social evil is spread through the unemployed. Frustration, drug-addiction, even suicides are, by and large, the evil results of unemployment. Unrest and disorder increase in society. It is, therefore, the duty of the Government to make every possible effort to solve this problem. However, we may stress again that the problem cannot be solved till the population explosion is not checked. The two are closely inter-linked, and the people must be made to realize this through and adequate process of social education. We are happy to note that the government has come out with a plan to provide employment to educated young men during the ninth plan period.

Short Eassy -Basant Panchmi

Goddess Saraswati

Magh Sud 5 (5th day of the bright fortnight of the lunar month of Magh – falls usually in the month of  January or February) is the day of Vasant Panchami and is also celebrated as Shree Panchami or Saraswati Puja in West Bengal and few other parts of Orissa.

Saraswati is traditionally depicted with a serene and calm expression with a majestic air. She is seated on a white lotus in Padmasana, adorned by a pure white silk sari, has a book in her lower left hand, her lower right hand showing the chinmudra, Aksharamala in her right upper hand, and Amrithakalasam in her left upper hand. Both eyes are full of compassion. The vehicle assigned to each of the three goddesses also symbolically represent their special powers.

The image of Goddess Saraswati depicts her sitting on a vehicle that symbolizes her supreme power. The white swan of Saraswati symbolizes Satwa Guna (purity and discrimination), the lotus of Lakshmi the Rajas Guna and the tiger of Durga the Tamas Guna. Saraswati is shown possessing four hands and plays "Veena", an Indian string musical instrument.

Goddess Saraswati is the consort of Lord Brahma (Lord of Creation) and is the goddess of wisdom and learning. Saraswati is the one who gives the essence (sara) of our own self (swa). She is considered as the personification of all knowledge - arts, sciences, crafts and other skills. She has a beautiful and elegant presence, is pure white in colour, clad in a white sari, seated on a white lotus, representing purity and brilliance. She has four hands representing four aspects of human personality in learning: mind, intellect, alertness and ego. She has the sacred scriptures in one hand and a lotus (a symbol of true knowledge) in the second. With her other two hands she plays the music of love and life on the veena.

She is dressed in white (sign of purity) and rides on a white goose (swan). The swan is known for its peculiar characteristic of being capable of separating water from milk, indicating that we should possess discrimination in separating the bad from the good. The seat being a lotus or peacock implies that the teacher is well-established in the subjective experience of truth. When sitting on a peacock she reminds us that wisdom suppresses ego

On this day Goddess Saraswati is worshipped in various names and fames - the Goddess of Learning, the deity of Gayatri, the fountain of fine arts and science, and the symbol of supreme vedantic knowledge.

Festival of flying kites

On the day of flying kites, together with worshiping, competition of flying kites is also organised. In this festival national and international competitors participate. The tradition of flying kites was started from China. In this festival of flying kites, we get an opportunity to see new and versatile kites.