Month: May 2019

How I Taught My Grandmother to Read – Story by Sudha Murthy

Explanation

Para 1 … I was about twelve then. I lived with my grandparents in a North Karnataka village. Transport to this place was quite basic / rudimentary. Life seemed to move rather slowly. The morning paper came in the afternoon. The weekly magazine came a day late. We waited with baited breath for the bus that carried these and the day’s post.
Para 2 … Triveni, the story writer, was a household name during those days. Her stories revolved around common folks. In her typical lucid style, she deftly handled the intriguing problems by the many common characters portrayed in her writings. Sadly, this talented Kannada writer died very young. Nearly four decades after Triveni’s demise, the enduring attraction of her books continues to charm the hearts of countless readers.
Para 3 … Her novel Kashi Yatre serialized in the Kannada weekly Karmaveera, deals with the life of a old lady yearning to go to Kashi (Varanasi) to earn the much-cherished punya that accrues to the devotees of Lord Vishweshara. The novel describes the travails of the lady in undertaking the arduous journey to Kashi. The old lady happens to meet an orphan girl, deeply in love. But, the poor young girl can not afford the expenses of her marriage. The old lady is engulfed with sympathy for the young love-lorn girl, and decides to donate all her savings so that the marriage could go through. The old lady in the twilight of her life is swept by compassion.  She feels ensuring the happiness of a young orphan girl is more important than a darshan of the Lord Vishweshara.

Read moreHow I Taught My Grandmother to Read – by Sudha Murthy

Mirror

by Sylvia Plath

I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
Whatever I see I swallow immediately
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.
I am not cruel, only truthful ‚
The eye of a little god, four-cornered.
Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.
It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long
I think it is part of my heart. But it flickers.
Faces and darkness separate us over and over.
Explanation … Here the speaker is the mirror. Through its voice, the speaker chooses to express her inner feelings. The opening line, ‘I am silver and exact,’ makes it abundantly clear. The mirror describes itself as an un-biased observer. It absorbs whatever image is incident on it, and reflects it very truly with no distortion or manipulation. It has no particular fondness or rancor towards anyone or any object. That enables it to reflect the images so faithfully and so correctly.
The mirror affirms that it has no feeling of vengeance or bias against anyone. Its commitment is only for truthful reflection of all that it sees. Such unwavering resolve for neutrality in observation can only be expected from God, not from any human being. So the mirror with its four corners feels that it is the eye of a ‘little’ God.
The mirror is hung on a wall. It stares at the pink, speckled wall opposite to it endlessly. It has no respite from looking at the same dreary wall. So, it is condemned to ‘meditate’ on the wall with no leeway to look elsewhere for a change. The image of the opposite wall has got embedded in the mirror’s heart. However, at times, the opposite wall’s image vanishes giving place to faces who peer into it. Also, the night’s darkness interrupts the gazing at the opposite wall.

Read moreMirror by Sylvia Plath