RICE Jhumpa Lahiri Jhumpa Lahiri was born in London in 1967. Later her family moved to the United States, where she attended Barnard College and received multiple graduate degrees, including a Ph.D. in Renaissance studies from Boston University.    Lahiri has won several literary awards, including a Pulitzer Prize and a PEN/Hemingway Award. Her fiction often explores Indian and Indian-American life and culture — as does this personal essay, which originally appeared in the  New Yorker  magazine.    Along with corn and wheat, rice remains one of the most important crops in the world, especially in Asia, where it has been cultivated for thousands of years. Rice accounts for between 35 percent and 85 percent of the calories consumed by billions of people living in India, China, and other Asian countries.    The ancient Indian word for rice (“dhanya”) means “sustainer of the human race.” Rice can be symbolic as well: we throw rice at weddings because ...

  GOD SEES THE TRUTH BUT WAITS Leo Tolstoy  Leo Tolstoy was a Russian writer and a master of realistic fiction.   He was born in a wealthy family in Russia. His parents died when he was a child. He was brought up by his elder brother and relatives. He studied languages and law at Kazan University for three years.  He was dissatisfied with the school and left Kazan without a degree. Then he returned to his estate and educated himself independently.  In 1848, he moved to the capital, St. Petersburg, where he passed two tests for a law degree. He took military training and became an army officer. He wrote his first novel  Childhood  (1852), which became a success. Tolstoy’s short story  “God Sees the Truth, but Waits ”   first published in 1872 is about the false conviction and imprisonment of a man for a murder he did not commit, and it takes the form of a parable for forgiveness. ABOUT THE STORY Leo N. Tolstoy's 'God Sees the Truth, But Waits,...

THE OVAL PORTRAIT Edgar Allan Poe Background of Writer   Name : Edgar Allen Poe Nationality : American Date of Birth : January 19, 1809 Death : October 7, 1849 (At the age of 40) He was a writer, poet, editor and Literary Critic best known for his poetry and short stories. About this Story Original Title : Life in Death Genre(s) : Gothic Horror Publisher : Graham’s Magazine Publication Date : April 1842   This story presents Relationship between Art and Life Power of Art Power of Love Aesthetic Beauty   Symbol and Setting Setting : A desolate chateau in the Apennines which is the mountain range in central Italy Symbol : Painting is a symbol of mortality of love and immortality of art   Vocabularies Gothic – go’-thik (belonging to Middle Ages; old-fashioned; nonmodern) Chateau – sha-tow (an impressive country house or castle in France) Apennines – a-pu, nInz (a mountain range extending the length of the Italia...

  THE SELFISH GAINT Oscar Wilde Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was an Irish wit, poet, novelist, and playwright. Wilde was born of professional and literary parents. His father, Sir William Wilde, was an ear and eye surgeon. His mother was a revolutionary poet and an authority on Celtic myth and folklore.  Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day. He is best known for his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), and his comic masterpieces Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895).   'The Selfish Giant' is a short fantasy story for children written by Oscar Wilde. It was first published in the anthology The Happy Prince and Other Tales in 1888. This story is about a giant who learned an important lesson about love and sharing and holds different meanings for people of different age.  The moral of the story is Happiness through true love and selflessness . Characters : Giant Cornish Ogre Children Linnet (...

MY MOTHER NEVER WORKED Bonnie Smith - Yackel SYNOPSIS   In the essay “ My Mother Never Worked ,” Bonnie Smith-Yackel recollects the time when she called Social Security to claim her mother’s death benefits. Social Security places Smith-Yackel on hold so they can check their records on her mother, Martha Jerabek Smith . While waiting, she remembers the many things her mother did, and the compassion her mother felt towards her husband and children. When Social Security returns to the phone, they tell Smith-Yackel that she could not receive her mother’s death benefits because her mother never had a wage-earning job. A tremendous amount of irony is used in this essay. The title, in itself, is full of irony; it makes readers curious about the essay’s point and how the author feels about the situation. Smith-Yackel uses the essay to convey her opinion of work. Her thesis is not directly stated; however, she uses detail upon detail to prove her mother did work, just not in the eyes of ...

ONLY DAUGHTER -Sandra Cisneros Born into a working-class family in 1954, Sandra Cisneros was the daughter of a Mexican-American mother and a Mexican father.  Only Daughter originally appeared in Glamour magazine in 1990. Cisneros through this essay describes the difficulties of growing up as the only daughter in a Mexican-American family of six sons.   Historically, sons have been valued over daughters in most cultures, as reflected in the following proverbs: “A house full of daughters is like a cellar full of sour beer” (Dutch); “Daughters pay nae [no] debts” (Scottish); “A stupid son is better than a crafty daughter” (Chinese); and “A virtuous son is the sun of his family” (Sanskrit).  Contemporary research suggests that while the preference for male children has diminished considerably in industrialised nations, a distinct preference for sons continues among many cultures in Asia and the Middle East, raising concerns among medical ethicists worldwide. And, even within ...

  Q IN DYNAST Y NOTES BCE = Before the Common Era (CE) - Gregorian (gri’go-ree-un) Calendar  Qin = Ch’in Zhou = Chou Feudalism : a socio-political system that existed in Europe during the Middle Ages in which people worked and fought for the nobles who gave them protection and the use of land in return  Legalism: an ancient Chinese philosophical belief that human beings are more inclined to do the wrong than the right because they are motivated entirely by self-interest. It was developed by the philosopher Han Feizi (c. 280-233 BCE).  Confucianism : the system of ethics, education, and statesmanship taught by the Chinese philosopher Confucius (551–479 BCE) and his disciples, stressing love for humanity, ancestor worship, reverence for the parents, and harmony in thought and conduct  TEXT The Qin Dynasty, pronounced like chin , emerged in 221 BCE. Qin Shihuang, the king of the Qin State at the time, conquered the many feudal territories. Qin Shihuang wa...