GOOD POINTS 

      The letter to God

 Lencho was a dedicated agriculturist and had
invincible and insurmountable faith in God
 It was ingrained in Lencho’ s mind to think of God
in the times a weal and woe.
 The post master was a kind and amiable man and
lauded lunch or who had extraordinary confidence
in God.
 He and his colleagues made fanatic efforts to help
out Lencho.
 Lencho was a devout thiest 
 The incessant rain was followed with hailstones
whose brute force destroyed the field profoundly.
 This chapter appreciates the attempt made to
establish a communion of human with the
supernatural.
 Only God can provide redemption from one of his
creations.(i.e. the incessant rains)
 It is absolutely true that optimism can bring about
a spark of brightness even in adverse situations.
 Lencho was the caring head of the family and an
ox of a man.

The Proposal 
 The family brothers worked on their farms and lead
a life of ease and comfort. They quarrelled over
petty things.
 The fate of marriages that are solemnised by a
deceitful intention on the part of both the partners
is the theme of this farcical play.
 In marriages of convenience, love takes a
backseat. 
 Mutual understanding and maturity both are
indispensable elements for a successful marriage.
 Lomov lacks confidence and is prone to talk in a
long winded manner.
 The play also brings to light the social life of land
owners of the 19 century. There is a lack of cordial
relationship between the neighbours.
 And unmarried grown-up daughter was considered
a great birthday and my parents.
 An aged bachelor was also look down upon in the
society.
 Natalya has a headstrong, egoistic and selfish
character.
 They lacked patience and tolerance which is an
open testimony to the fact that they would have
showdowns often.
 An ideal marriage is the union of two hearts and
two families.
 This theme has been presented nicely through the
characters of Lomov and Natalya.
 Marriage is pious and there must be a perfect
accord between the partners who should be free of
all prejudice and selfishness.

The Tale of Custard The Dragon 

 The theme of the poem is do not judge a book by
its cover.
 The one who had seem to be the biggest coward is
the one who saves the day in the end.
 And when the situation demands custard shows its
true colours and this surprises the readers.
 The pirate had been full of bravado when he was
entering the house but he loses all of that as soon
as he sees custard approaching him.
 We should never judge someone without fully
getting to know them.
 All of them later felt obliged to custard for saving
their lives. 
 A true evaluation of a person can be made only in
the times of adversity.

          The Sermon at Benaras

 Gautam Buddha had realised at the age of 25 that
world is the home of sufferings, After renouncing
the worldly pleasures.
 Shakespeare had once written that, the world is a
stage and all human beings are actors. One has to
go away after the role in the play is over.
 If only you take out the arrow of lamentation and
get composed you will get the peace of mind. The
lesson is that one must remain an equanimous
person.
 Live life to the fullest.
 Everything in this world is subject to decay.
 Kisa’s realisation: She reconciled to her child’s
death and concluded that no one could be led to
immortality only by surrendering all selfishness.
 One who has learnt to control his grief shall have
the peace of mind and remain blessed.
 Buddha tells about the universality of death which
is inevitable and can’t be escaped.
 The living are few, but the dead are many.
 The topmost runt of the ladder that reaches the
Almighty is renunciation.

Nelson Mandela the long walk to freedom

 This autobiography illustrates and interprets the
theme of struggle for freedom.
 Patience and perseverance guided by discipline
and system yield the desired results.
 Courage is not the absence of fear but the victory
over it.
 The antics of childhood look transitory during
adulthood because most of the child is activity is
wasteful from an adult perspective.
 The country of south Africa is rich in the minerals
and gemsThat live beneath the soil but its greatest
wealth is its people who are finer and truer than
the purest diamonds.
 Freedom would only come at a price. For achieving
the presidency to the country Nelson had to
sideline his family
 Nelson Mandela is undaunted courage persistent
struggle and unparalleled sacrifice bore fruit and
 South Africa got freedom from the rule of apartheid
on 10 May 1994.
 Like any other boy freedom for Mandela meant
making merry and enjoying a blissful life. But as an
adult he wanted freedom only for himself. Later he
understands that evening honest livelihood for the
daily bread gets an honourable existence in the
family and in the society.
 The oppressor and the oppressed both have to be
liberated.

Bholi
 Family support and emotional security are
essential for proper child development. 
 Disabled children must be given encouragement
love and education like their normal counterparts.
 Education give Bholi her strength knowledge and
understanding. From a fool, she became an
enlightened girl.
 Although Bholi never got that deserved love, care
and acceptance from her family, Bholi was ready to
reciprocate like all other daughters in the Indian
society.
 Unfortunately Bholi is a victim of gender bias and
physical disability.
 Bholi empowers herself with knowledge and stands
up for her dignity. Her rise from a dumb cow who is
suppressed add both home and by society to a
lightning thunder is inspiring.
  The writer voices his displeasure about the
Discrimination between sons and daughters that is
practised in rural middle-class families.
 He also brings to light the inhuman reaction of
people to those who are differently abled.
 The evil of dowry system is also criticised in the
story to convey the message of equality for men
and women.
 The writer embraces that the objective of the
society should be to bring girls at par with the
boys.

   The dust of snow.       Robert Frost 

 The Crow and hemlock tree represent the negative
aspect of the poem.
 This poem shows human’s communion with nature.
 Ironically these only help change the poets mood.
 A gloomy dejected mood is changed into optimistic
mood.
 The heat in the form of anguish of the day, is
dissipated from the poets mind, when the dust of
snow fell on the poet.
 Small trivial events Can bring a change in our
attitude maybe momentarily.
 The nature played a significant role and enlivened
his mood.
 The poet learns that there is a shiny day after
every night.
 He should shake off his depressive thoughts like
the Crow who shook off the dust of snow from the
Hemlock tree and become cheerful. Do something
productive.
 The diary of Annie frank
 The diary acts as a memorial of Annie frank and
informs people about the atrocities of Holocaust.
 People are often Judge mental and you may have
to force them to listen to you but a paper never
carries a grudge.
 Anne is an insightful writer. To clear the Clouds of
doubts in the readers mind she decides to give a
brief sketch of an adorable father, compassionate
mother, kind grandmother and a loving sister.
 Paper has more patience than people.
 Mr Keesing, her maths teacher, acknowledged
Anne and her meticulous efforts.
 Anne was not ready to play it by ear as she was
bold.
 Teachers are the most eccentric creatures on earth
because her maths teacher took a satire on him as
a joke in the right way.
 As a teacher he lacked empathy and compassion.
Thus, he needs to be more patient and
considerate.
 Anne was not an easy-going girl and decided to
change Mr Keesing’s temperament.

Two stories about flying

His first flight
  To accept and successfully face challenges, one
must be fearless, determined and have the clarity
of thought and action.
 His hunger over powered his fear of the great
expanse of the sea beneath the cliff. 
 The young Seagull was too timid to muster up the
courage and make the strenuous effort to fly.
 All the encouragement and Co axing also did not
work.
 Fear blocks once progress which needs to compare
with courage.
 The family commended the young Seagull is efforts
to make a successful attempt for his first flight.
 It is the ardent wish of every parent to teach all
skills to young ones so that they may succeed in
life.
 All parental acts are for the betterment of the
children.

The black aeroplane

 But the narrator was dumbstruck when he came to

know that there was no aeroplane noticed on the

radar that night
 It seems incredible sometimes to the scientific

world, on the other hand, we can’t deny the

existence of such happenings.

The triumph of surgery

 Cheeky ought to have been less gluttonous and
luxury loving and behave more like a dog.
 The narrator who is a doctor understands the dogs
lethargy and treats it at his clinic.
 Harriet seems to be a duty bound veterinary doctor
who values others’ emotions more than his
personal interest.
 He is a humanitarian.
 He is a tactful person who cheated Chikki without
any medication. He only used vigorous physical
practice to maintain its fitness.
 Mrs had a extravagant way of expressing her love
towards tricky like her own son.

A hundred dresses(part 1 and 2)

 Though Bonda felt bad she waited for the right
time to come.
 To counter the mockery she replied that she had
100 dresses With intricate designs if not in the
closet then in her imaginations.
 Wanda’s family moved to a different city due to the
offensive, racist and insulting behaviour of the
students in school towards Bonda and her brother
James.
 Person who sees something wrong happening in
front of him or her is as much as offender as the
person committing the offence.
 Maddie intended to go to Bonda’s house with
Peggy to apologise and amend for all that had
happened, but Bonda had abandoned her house
along with the family.
 Maddie learnt a lesson that she would raise her
voice against injustice and bullying and stop being
a mute spectator anymore.
 Wonder had later surprised the girls as she replied
there unsavoury taunts with her creative expertise
in the field of drawing.
 People who judge others with their socio economic
background need to learn that such things are not
the parameters to judge a person‘s capabilities.
 The issues of racism and classism are confronted in
this chapter through Bonda’s negative school
experiences. This lead to her whole family moving
to a big city to avoid being ostracised.

Madam Rides the bus

 Valli was very calculative and analysed the money
spent and time taken of her bus ride very
accurately.
 Her journey to the city is also her induction into the
mystery of life and death.
 She had an overwhelming desire to ride the bus
and go to the city at least once.
 Being a small child she pretends to inherit all the
qualities of a mature person which gives her the
courage to go all alone by herself for the bus ride.
 Enthusiasm and excitement to achieve the goal are
also needed United.
 She is very confident, assertive, inquisitive,
authoritative and calculative.
 Proper planning and strong determination lead to
success.
 Her childish innocence veiled by her smart and old
Outlook amused the conductor so he called her
madam.
 The puerile acts of Valli like calling proud proud are
an open testimony to the childish innocense of
Valli.
 The death of the cow makes the girl realise the
transience of life and inevitability of death.
 The conductor was a man of cheerful disposition.
 He was a cheerful good-natured man who enjoyed
his work.

Fog—Carl Sandburg
 The poet captured a natural phenomena. The short
lines emphasised the slow pace of the poem.
 Fog and cat and not driven by the rules. This gives
solace to the reader.
 The fog and cat or never stationery and keep
moving from one place to another.
 Just like the cat, fog also has a sort of Aloof
attitude at the intrusion of mankind in its space.
This can be inferred that nature shows an uncaring
attitude towards mankind.
 Hence, the poet is showing his reader that people
are a part of nature, but nature isn’t about to bend
to the will and desires of the people. It is uncaring
and will do what it pleases.
 The fog approaches stealthily, just like a cat with
it’s little feet. They both make their impressions
and make their presence felt for example fog is a
silent spectator of the happenings in the city and it
creates a hazy atmosphere all around.
 This poem serves as a motivation for people who
take the beauty of nature for granted to find such
interesting comparisons and similarities in it.
 At the symbolic level, one should not be hopeless
and not lose courage, rather think of it as short
lived as the fog is.

The hack driver

 Oliver outsmarted the lawyer by his cunning tricks
he was able to fool a lawyer in spite of being a
common man.
 He entertained the lawyer with his lucid description
of the village folk charged two dollars per hour,
half dollar for the food.
 The narrator was impressed by the hospitality and
cooperation of the villagers.
 The lawyer could have been more protective and
talk to more people rather than enjoying a whole
day of expense at the firm. Ideally, a lawyer must
find out a scope of doubt on anyone.
 In the end the cat was let out of the bag as the
lawyer came to know that the hack driver had
played a practical joke on the lawyer.
 Shakespeare’s view is that a man may smile and
smile and yet be a villain. This is fully endorsed by
the chapter.
 The necklace
 Madam Loisel was born and married in a destitute
family. She suffers from discontentment and
inferiority complex.
 Her house was not at all spic and span.
 Her husband was sacrificing, submissive, amiable,
affable and loving.
 She got a necklace but this vanity was short lived
and began trouble in her life. A necklace reduce
them to poverty.
 Without the moments hesitation her friend tells
Matilda that her necklace was just a fake one and
says this in the light of the fact that she may have
to return the necklace. Hence, she was a gem of a
friend.
 Matilda’s pride and her materialistic aspirations
coupled with her dishonesty Paved the way for her
ruin.
 Her dreamy, ambitious and wain nature pushed her
into trouble.
 Theme: if wishes were horses, the beggars would
ride.

The midnight visitor

 They say that appearances are often deceptive.
This is quite true in the case of Ausable. Physically,
he may be fat but mentally he is very agile and
quick-witted. 
 He knows all the tricks of his trade. Max was a spy
who was overconfident and too proud. His pride
blinded him, and he thought that wielding a gun
would give a further edge over the seemingly slow
Ausable.
 Presence of mind, quick reactions and a fertile
brain more than compensated the fat and sloppy
man, Ausable.
 Ausable knew that he could unnerve his gun-
wielding rival by showing the threat of the police.
Ausable cooked up a false story to entrap crafty
Max.
 Max foolishly takes Ausable’s words at face value.
 Max was no match to Ausable.
 He got max killed without lifting a finger.
 Survival in the episonage depends upon spies
mental alertness.

A question of trust
 The story is based on the concept of honour among
thieves.
 Crime never pays.
 When Horace landed in trouble with the
appearance of the young lady is clever mind give
way to carelessness leading him to open the safe
without wearing gloves.
 She is so shrewd and crafty that she easily
convinced Horace Danby to open the safe by her
alluring looks.
 Horace learns the bitter reality that honour among
thieves is a figment of imagination created by
fiction and cinema.
 He is backstabbed by another thief whom he
presumes would uphold the honour.
 The lady shows uncanny presence of mind. She is
an unscrupulous thief.
 It was Danby’s nature to accept the difference
among the people regarding their social status. He
was a respectable man but his passion for books
led him to thievery.

Fire and Ice

 The poet brings us into the middle of an age old
argument between people who think the world will
end by fire and people who think it would end in
ice.
 Hate gets all the Publicity but it is the silent killer it
may not have the same grandeur as the fireball
ending but it will do the thing.
 Fire is the antithesis of ice. 
 The world will end in fire means man made
destruction of the world because of man's greed
and animosity leading to global warming or nuclear
war. 
 Fire represents desires where as ice symbolises
cold contempt.
 And this is what happens by the destruction by ice:
You have a fit of rage which is about feeling and it
keeps smoldering inside you and you finally
become impervious to love you become indifferent
 and caring and devoid of positive feelings. This is
in itself an impending disaster.
 In this poem truth for frost is not a philosophical 
concept rather it is a rational observation of facts
and there representation in a direct way with
intimacy. 
 Love brotherhood tolerance peace and
contentment sensitivity benevolence generosity
and people can make this world a better place to
live in.

The making of a scientist 

 Richard was self driven and had innate curiosity

although he was not sporty.

 He collected all 25 species of butterflies found

around his hometown.

 The book that travels of Monarch X opened the

world of science to the eager young collector.

 Life-cycle of female monarch from egg to

caterpillar to pupa to adult Butterfly. 

 He went to many science projects:- 

1. Is and she was slides of Cell tissues which he

showed under a microscope. 
2. Next project was the cause of viral disease that
kills nearly all monarch caterpillars every few
years. He won 
3. Next year's project was testing the theory that
Viceroy butterflies copy monarchs. He came third. 
 In second year in high School Richard began the

research that led to the discovery of insect home

on present in tiny gold spots of monarch pupa. This
 one him first place in county fair and entry to
international science and engineering fair 
 There he one third place for zoology. 
 He spent the summer at entomology laboratory of
the Walter Reed army Institute of research. 
 Richard grew cells from monarch's-wing and
discovered that The cells would divide and develop
into normal butterfly wings scales only if they were
fed the hormone off gold spots. 
 Richard ever write graduated from Harvard second
and S class.
 He gave the new theory of cell life that the DNA of
the nucleus of the cell is the blueprint of the
organism. 
 Scientist start with a first-rate mind add curiosity
mixing the will to win for the right reasons. 

A tiger in the zoo.    -by Leslie Norris

 This poem expresses the heightening of contrast
between freedom and captivity.
 Lifestyle in their habitat: The stealthy hunting of a
deer at the waterhole may seem cruel, but it is
merely a survival strategy. The tiger used to be
threatening the villagers as their territory was
encroaching. However it does not kill or harm the
inhabitants, unless it is put under extreme
provocation.
 They are not really a danger to human life, and so
they should not be confined. Also taking away
one’s freedom to keep one alive kills the desire to
live anyhow.
 Now the curtailment of his freedom keeps him in a
quiet rage.
 Lifestyle in a zoo: the radius of movement of the
Tiger is very small, it feels like a prisoner in a jail
cell, it is fed by the zoo authorities and so it
unlearns how to live by itself and is made lazy.
 Tiger scares humans to restrain people from
poaching to make their ends meet.
 Love for freedom is natural instinct of all living
organisms.
 Confinement brings bondage and bondage is
cruelty. Animals also cherish freedom.
 The tiger ,who is wretched in his cage, is devoid of
freedom and is yearning for it by looking at the
stars.

How to tell wild animals.   -by Carolyn Wells

 The poet describes the wildlife vividly and in a

lively manner.
 This beautiful poem is about the strange habits and

behaviours of some wild animals. These include the

Asian lion, the Bengal tiger, the leopard, the beer,
the hyena and the crocodile.
 However, putting one’s life on the line just to

identify the tiger and the leopard doesn’t seem

worth the risk! 
 The poet uses humour to warn the readers against

venturing too close to these animals.

 Humour is the fuel of life and without it it’s difficult

to continue living.
 The ball poem           -by John Berryman
 The boy must try to understand the epistemology
of loss and the emotional implication of the sense
of loss.
 The loss of the ball led to the realisation that the
moments the boy had cherished in his childhood
would not come back, just like the ball.
 Money is external as it can buy only materialistic
things but the abstract things cannot be bought.
 This is when we put ourselves in others’ shoes and
empathise with other people in the same situation.
 For a down to go earth nature, financial assistance
to someone has to be minimised.
 Thus, the poet seeing all this, doesn’t want to
interfere with the boys ruminations.
 The boy must learn this bitter truth of life.
 The ball also symbolises our family or loved ones,
and the loss of the ball symbolises their death.But
as we grow older we become accustomed to
seeing our loved ones die.
 With experience, one should attain self –
consolation, and self understanding in order to
bear the loss. These are more effective and lasting 
when it is not done by an external agency or a
person.

Animals -Walt Whitman

 It shows the contrast between humans and
animals.
 The poet is turning away from greed, dishonesty,
hypocrisy of human beings.
 Humans living awake at night and cry for their sins,
they keep telling each other about their religious
rights and duties to God and bow down in servility
to their superiors.
 Humans are losing empathy due to rat race of
getting worldly things, where as animals still value
love and belongingness.
 Animals don’t whine about their condition, they
remain well content.
 Civilisation has made humans falls to their own
true nature.
 The poet introspect himself where he has good
qualities are gone this reflects the fact that he has
dropped those tokens.

Amanda - by Robin Klein

 Upbringing plays an essential role in personality
development of a child.
 Amanda is expected to be prim, proper and
radiant.
 A bad tree does not yield good apples.
 Instilling good values and moral principles in the
growing child becomes the foremost duty of the
parents.
 However, the poem shows how much old and feels
trapped under a cluster of instructions Amanda is
no less than a victim in this travesty.
 Amanda gets lost in your imaginative world and is
far away from the harsh reality that is persistent
nagging by one of her parents.
 She thinks that it is only in the reality of our own
imagination that she can be free of all expectations
that a put on the young girls of our age.
 The more the children are suppressed, the more
defiant they become. They turn a deaf ear to the
instructions of the elders.
 teenagers can be rebellious and apparently hot
headed with a highly independent perspective.
Thus bringing up a teenager is both a challenge
and fun.

Glimpses of India
A baker from Goa
 Traditional values shape of personality and also
provide us emotional support.
 The author is feeling nostalgic about his childhood
days and has strong cultural ties with Goa.
 The culture of the place is developed as an
outcome of the traditions followed by the people
and conventions that are there to their religion
they follow, there ethnicity And models of the
philosophy of life that guides them.
 The baker of Goa is called pader with peculiar
dress called Kabai.
 The institution of the pader has become so wedded
to the Goan life that it will always remain immortal.
 Indirectly the author suggests to revive and
preserve our old traditions that add to the rich
diversity of India.
 The chief crop is coffee.

Coorg
 It is said that the people searching for the heart
and soul of India should visit Coorg.
 Coorg is situated in Karnataka midway between
Mysore and the coastal town of Mangalore.
 It looks like a piece of heaven that must have
drifted from the kingdom of God.
 It is said that the people of Coorg are of Arabic and
greek descent.
 Coorgi homes have the tradition of hospitality.
 The Kodavus Are the only people in India allowed
to carry firearms without a license.
 The climb to the Brahmagiri hills gives a panoramic
view of the entire misty landscapes of Coorg.
 The weather of joy commences between
September and March.
 The first chief of the Army was General Carriappa a
Coorgi.
 Corgis stick to their tradition of marriage and
religious rituals, yet they are a part and parcel of
India.
 The author indirectly endorses the theme of unity
in diversity.
 Tea from Assam
 Assam has the largest concentration of tea
plantations in the world.
 Tea was first drunk in China. Even the words chai
and China are from Chinese.
 Pranjol doesn’t share Rajvir’s excitement because
he had been born and brought up on a plantation.
 Rajveer was fascinated by the magnificent view of
the tea gardens.
 Pleasure and scholarship can be combined to make
knowledge affecting and lasting.
 Rajveer is inquisitive and has a scholarly bent of
mind.

The book that save the earth

 Noodle is an intelligent character as he offers
suggestions tactfully to his arrogant master.
 He acts as a shadow of his master think tank.
 When think tank misinterprets the nursery rhymes
noodle does not intervene. This silence on his part
speaks volumes of his ability to handle situations
wisely.
 Thus noodle deserves to be the ruler of Mars.
 The author indirectly conveys the message that if
this universe has to save itself from total
destruction, every creature must learn to live with
love and cooperation.
 For think tank pride always has a fall.
 Think tank who was proud of his wisdom and being
the so called most wisest person on Mars was
defeated in the end and had a great fall.
 The book of nursery rhymes played an
instrumental role in saving the earth from a
Martian invasion and preventing a catastrophe.
Footprints without feet
 Griffin is the lawless person because he uses the
advantage of invisibility to run out of money and
resort to robbery.
 He was an Eccentric scientist.
 Griffin became invisible not for the welfare of the
society, but to satisfy, his own sadistic pleasures
by his satanic deeds.
 He was a criminal scientist and had no respect for
humanity. He should have used his discovery for
the benefit of the society and his country.
 All the character flaws i.e. inexplicable anger,
aggression, hostility, restlessness, vexation And
uncontrollable behaviour led to his downfall.
 Thus, griffin’s unlawful activities devalue his
scientific discovery.