My impressions

The Glass Menagerie  - Tennessee Williams

 The Glass Menagerie is one of the finest plays by Tennessee Williams . The whole story revolves around the Wing field family. The three members of the Wing field family are all trapped (the mother by her past and the memory of her husband who left her; the daughter by her overwhelming shyness and lack of confidence; and the son by the overwhelming responsibility of caring for his family in a mind-numbing warehouse job

Tennessee Williams, through his narrator, Tom, explains to the audience that this is a memory play, and he emphasizes the irony that truth is often covered by illusion. One of the play’s primary interests lies in exploring illusion versus reality. Amanda is a very insecure parent; she expends her ingenuity in manipulating others to care for her. Instead of acknowledging her children as individuals both gifted and flawed, she subconsciously denies them their humanity by insisting on their perfection. Tom and Laura retreat—Tom to the movies and eventually to distant lands, and Laura to the world of her imagination and her glass animals. Tom and Laura react subconsciously to their mother’s demands by avoiding any possibility of success, a stance that ensures their psychological and social defeat. Overall, it was an emotional drama, full of emotions. I really like the character of Laura, who at first appears most divorced from reality, emerges as the only member of the family who is in touch with the truth about herself.

Rajni Yadav

My Expressions

Book Review

The Village by the Sea

By-Anita Desai

‘The Village by the Sea’ is the story of a poor family of six. It is set in the village Thul which is roughly 14 miles away from Mumbai (then called Bombay)

The story describes the pros and cons of the lifestyle of fishermen living near sea. It very well depicts how their lives depend on fishing and palm trees and how the monsoons affect them.

It also balances multiple stories at the same time. It relates to the life of poor as well as the lives of the rich. It explains life in a village as well as life in a city.

The story, as I said earlier, is based on the life of a poor family. The father is a drunk and does nothing for the family. The mother is struck with anaemia and lies in bed all the time. The eldest children, Lila(13 years) and Hari  (12 years), have stopped going to school  so as to take care of their family. Their younger sisters, Bela and Kamal, are still very young.

The story is very slow. Hari goes to Bombay in search of a job and Lila is left all alone to cope up with the pace of life.

The story, however, ends on a positive note. All the characters and objects, when analysed deeply, symbolise some or the other truth of life.

This is Anita Desai’s first novel for children written in 1982.It had received the ‘Guardian Children Fiction Award’ in the same year. It has also been rated between  3/5 to 4/5.

I like reading novels related to children so that I can inculcate good values and strength in them to face challenges in life.

Teachers - My Expressions

GREAT EXPECTATIONS – BY CHARLES DICKENS

MY EXPRESSIONS…

GREAT EXPECTATIONS –  BY CHARLES DICKENS

Great Expectations is one of the most famous works of Charles Dickens, which I had read as a child and now again… after a long time , rekindling a lot of my school days memories.

Reading this book was an enriching experience as it depicts the personal growth of a poor, young orphan boy named Pip to a young gentleman living in London. This journey goes through varied situations and emotions like poverty-wealth, love –rejection , fear-anger etc.

The language of the book is very simple with many characters and situations being described in great detail. Though I found Estella being the daughter of Magwitch and the maid at Mr. Murdstone a little farfetched, but it did come as a surprise.

The entire novel is very interesting , emphasizing the value of relationships and to dream big.

INDUJA MATHUR

                                 

My Expressions

Book: Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

This book is about travelling, dreams and achieving those dreams. It gives a strong message that if we want to achieve something desperately all the universe conspires in helping us to achieve it.

The book is about being patient, understand the right opportunities and not taking the shortcuts while moving towards our goal.

The conclusion of the book taught me that we may run around whole world in seek of treasure, but ultimately we realize treasure lies where our heart is. It further strengthened my belief that treasure is in attaining knowledge through our everyday experiences.

The book also gave me a very picturesque view of desert. It was a pleasure reading this book.

- Shreng Labru

My Expressions

Book Review of the book - How to make life blissful worth diamonds

It’s a spiritual book telling us about our inner self. It emphasizes on the fact that, though it seems we are progressing a lot externally, but internally everyone is going weak day by day. The words stress and tension have become common even in the dictionary of children, leave aside adults. The main cause of this downfall is that, we are not living in our true consciousness that we all are souls and are just playing our roles through this body.

Besides thinking ourselves as soul we also need to adopt few habits which will benefit us in making our life worth diamond. These habits are as follows:-

1. Checking our first thought, when we get up in the morning, as its influence our whole day.

2. Regular meditation and yoga for inner peace because once we start experiencing it, we won’t search for external sources to keep us peaceful and happy.

3. Be an internally contended person and remain non entangled from waste thoughts or wasteful activities.

4. Imbibing some qualities like patience, sweetness, humility, forgiveness, receptivity to virtues, tolerance, inwardliness and simple heartedness.

5. Last but not the least, remembering and thanking GOD at least four to five times daily.

These few points will really help us in making our life blissful and worth diamond.

The book really benefitted me in my internal growth.

“My Expressions” about Nine Lives

Author: William Dalrymple

Nine lives talks about exploring India and writing about its religious traditions. The book is about Nine people, Nine lives each taking a different religious path, each one being unforgettable story.

While the nine lives are not identical, in several instances they have undergone a revelation which can't be proven scientifically. But the author listens to the story with rare empathy and lets them speak for themselves. The stories are fascinating and sometimes painfully moving and the author surrounds them with generous knowledge.

Synopsis:

1.     Nun’s tale: This story talks about a girl who gave up her family and her wealth to follow principle of Jainism and become nun.

2.     Dancer from Kannur: This story is about a Theyyam dancer Hari Das who transforms into god during performance and rest of the time he works as warder in prison.

3.     Daughters of Yellamma: This story talks about women who are dedicated to goddess and are pushed to prostitution.

4.     Singers of Epics: This story talks about Mohan Bhopa and his family who sing the epics of Pabuji (600 year old poem).

5.     Lal Pari: This story is about Red fairy and Indian girl who finds happiness and inner peace in Sufi shrines of Sindh.

6.     A monk’s tale: This story talks about Buddhist monk who fought to keep practicing his beliefs as a Buddhist.

7.     The maker of Idols: This story is about Srikanda Stpathy who belonged to a family of idol-makers since Chola period.

8.     The Lady Twilight: This story is about Manisha Ma Bhairavi from culcutta and her religious beliefs.

9.     Blind Minstrel: This story talks about Bauls of Bengal, especially about Kanai Das Baul.

The book is about mystical India that showcases ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. The author shows how the religion in India is often collective yet all the characters individually stand out.

Siddhartha By Hermann Hesse

Siddhartha
By Hermann Hesse

It is a story of a young Brahmin boy in pursuit of enlightenment.
Siddhartha, a Brahmin boy is brought up in a learned family. But he himself is not contented with his routine of chanting, sacrifice and meditation. With a heavy heart, his father gives him the permission to go. So he leaves home and spends time with samanas who believes in attainment of self by following a very hard life. Again discontented, he goes and seeks salvation with Gautama Buddha. He realizes that Gautama’s teachings will also be of no use to him, he decides to lead an ordinary life, a life of worldly pleasures.
Kamala, a beautiful mistress helps him gain the same and soon Siddhartha stands on his own, attains all the luxuries and is fully immersed in them. So much so that he forgets his real pursuit. Eventually, a bad dream awakens him and he returns to the river of his youth. There, he becomes an assistant to a wise, old ferryman who inspires Siddhartha to learn the art of listening to the river and learn life’s secrets. Here, finally Siddhartha achieves peace. During the same time, he comes across Kamala and his own son. Kamala, now a follower of Gautama, is bitten by a snake and dies leaving behind their son. This encounter also gives him the experience of what it is to be a father. Siddhartha tries to hold back his son but the young boy wants to break free. He realizes that the wisdom is not to hold the things back but in accepting them as they are.

                                                                                                                                          Reena Kohli