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SHRI VIDHIYA SHRI COACHING CENTRE , KARAIKUDI 9442738785 , 7200430099 STUDY MATERIALS POLYTECHNIC TRB-ENGLISH –UNIT VII SHRI VIDHYA SHRI Coaching Centre 3,T.T Nagar, 5th Street Near Maharishi Vidhya Manddir Hr.Sec.School Karaikudi-1 Cell :7200430099 WhatsUp :9442738785 Revised Study Materials INDIAN AND ENGLISH LITERATURE POLYTECHNIC TRB –ENGLISH UNIT- VII For Best Coaching : TNPSC / NEET/ BANKING/ TET/ TRB-PG / G.K CLASSES 282PASSED TILL 2017AUG 1 SHRI VIDHIYA SHRI COACHING CENTRE , KARAIKUDI 9442738785 , 7200430099 STUDY MATERIALS POLYTECHNIC TRB-ENGLISH –UNIT VII SHRI VIDHYA SHRI COACHING CENTRE 3,T.T Nagar, 5th Street Near Maharishi Vidhya Manddir Hr.Sec.School Karaikudi-1 Cell: 7200430099 Whatsup 9442738785 UNIT 7 - INDIAN AND ENGLISH LITERATURE Nissin Ezekiel: Night of the Scorpion A.K. Ramanujam: A River R. Parthasarathy: Lines for a Photograph Toru Dutt: Our Casuarina Tree Sarojini Naidu: The Soul's Prayer Anita Desai: Where shal we go for this summer? Badal Surcar: Evam Indrajit Sri Aurobindo: Rose of God. Arundhati Roy: The God of Small Things Mulk Raj Anand: Untouchable Deshpande: The Dark Holds No Terror Kirish karnard: Tugulaq 1. Nissin Ezekiel: Night of the Scorpion Nissim Ezekiel (16 December 1924 – 9 January 2004) was an Indian Jewish poet, actor, playwright, editor and art-critic. He was a foundational figure in postcolonial India's literary history, specifically for Indian writing in English. He was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1983 for his Poetry collection, "Latter-Day Psalms", by the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters. Ezekiel has been applauded for his subtle, restrained and well crafted diction, dealing with common and mundane themes in a manner that manifests both cognitive profundity, as well as an unsentimental, For Best Coaching : TNPSC / NEET/ BANKING/ TET/ TRB-PG / G.K CLASSES 282PASSED TILL 2017AUG 2 SHRI VIDHIYA SHRI COACHING CENTRE , KARAIKUDI 9442738785 , 7200430099 STUDY MATERIALS POLYTECHNIC TRB-ENGLISH –UNIT VII realistic sensibility, that has been influential on the course of succeeding Indian English poetry. Ezekiel enriched and established Indian English language poetry through his modernist innovations and techniques, which enlarged Indian English literature, moving it beyond purely spiritual and orientalist themes, to include a wider range of concerns and interests, including mundane familial events, individual angst and skeptical societal introspection. Night of the Scorpion I remember the night my mother was stung by a scorpion. Ten hours of steady rain had driven him to crawl beneath a sack of rice. Parting with his poison - flash of diabolic tail in the dark room - he risked the rain again. The peasants came like swarms of flies and buzzed the name of God a hundred times to paralyse the Evil One. With candles and with lanterns throwing giant scorpion shadows on the mud-baked walls they searched for him: he was not found. They clicked their tongues. With every movement that the scorpion made his poison moved in Mother's blood, they said. May he sit still, they said May the sins of your previous birth be burned away tonight, they said. May your suffering decrease the misfortunes of your next birth, they said. For Best Coaching : TNPSC / NEET/ BANKING/ TET/ TRB-PG / G.K CLASSES 282PASSED TILL 2017AUG 3 SHRI VIDHIYA SHRI COACHING CENTRE , KARAIKUDI 9442738785 , 7200430099 STUDY MATERIALS POLYTECHNIC TRB-ENGLISH –UNIT VII May the sum of all evil balanced in this unreal world against the sum of good become diminished by your pain. May the poison purify your flesh of desire, and your spirit of ambition, they said, and they sat around on the floor with my mother in the centre, the peace of understanding on each face. More candles, more lanterns, more neighbours, more insects, and the endless rain. My mother twisted through and through, groaning on a mat. My father, sceptic, rationalist, trying every curse and blessing, powder, mixture, herb and hybrid. He even poured a little paraffin upon the bitten toe and put a match to it. I watched the flame feeding on my mother. I watched the holy man perform his rites to tame the poison with an incantation. After twenty hours it lost its sting. My mother only said Thank God the scorpion picked on me And spared my children. "Night of the scorpion" is a brilliant narrative poem. o The protagonist might be the poet himself or a narrator who is the creation of his imagination. o The mother is stung by a scorpion on a rainy night. The mother is the most prominent figure in an Indian home. For Best Coaching : TNPSC / NEET/ BANKING/ TET/ TRB-PG / G.K CLASSES 282PASSED TILL 2017AUG 4 SHRI VIDHIYA SHRI COACHING CENTRE , KARAIKUDI 9442738785 , 7200430099 STUDY MATERIALS POLYTECHNIC TRB-ENGLISH –UNIT VII o So all the attention is focused on her. They are simple and good and believe in the efficiency of prayer. o They believe that prayer can ward off the evil influence. o They are a set of superstitious people. o They search for the scorpion but in vain. They believe that if the scorpion moves, its poison in the victim will also move and spread all over. o The words they speak to console the woman are also related to their superstitious beliefs. o Her suffering is caused by the sins she committed in the previous birth. Her endurance will reduce the effect of her sins in the previous birth and it will also make her life happy in the next birth. o The good and evil in the world has to be balanced and therefore her endurance of pain will reduce the amount of evil. o This also reminds us of the peasants' belief in rebirth. They are illiterate, ignorant and superstitious and they do not know anything other than turn into ritualistic practices and incantations. The narrator's father presents before us a striking contrast. He tries modern scientific treatments. He applies powder, herbs and hybrids. He does not interfere with what the peasants do. He does not object to the curses and blessings. He is quite perturbed and tries every possible remedies. o Finally he pours some paraffin in the affected area and applies a match to it expecting the poison to burn off. o Even when he does this a holy man goes on performing his rites to remove the effect of poison with an incantation. The scientific remedies tried by the father become as ineffective as the rituals and the incantations of the peasants and that of the holy man. For Best Coaching : TNPSC / NEET/ BANKING/ TET/ TRB-PG / G.K CLASSES 282PASSED TILL 2017AUG 5 SHRI VIDHIYA SHRI COACHING CENTRE , KARAIKUDI 9442738785 , 7200430099 STUDY MATERIALS POLYTECHNIC TRB-ENGLISH –UNIT VII After twenty hours the pain subsides and the woman speaks. o The last part of the poem upholds the dignity of the Indian motherhood. The mother's comment"Thank God the scorpion picked on me and spread my children" is typical of an Indian mother. o She is relieved to find that the scorpion let her children alone and thanks God for it. The entire poem may be taken as a tribute to the incomparable love of a mother. o The mother's malady causes considerable disturbance not only to the members of the family but to the whole neighbourhood. o All are anxious to alleviate her pain. o Different attempts are made by different people. o All these go to prove that the poem is woven around the theme of reverence to the mother. EXTRA POINTS "Night of the Scorpion" is typically an Indian poem by a typical Indian poet The poets interest in the Indian soil and its ordinary human events of day-to- day Indian life is superb. A good many Indians are illiterate and are blindly superstitious. o But they are simple, loving and lovable. o They attempt to save the victim by doing whatever they can. (Indian Superstitious) o But they do not succeed. o The father who is not superstitious and is educated tries his own scientific ways; he too, does not succeed. o There is the holy man who performs his rites with incantation. o He also fails to find a cure. Finally the cue comes by itself. This can be taken as a proof for the belief in 'fate'; everything in a man's life is pre-destined and man has no role in changing it. The poem is interpreted as a symbolic juxtaposition of darkness and light. The night, the scorpion, the poison and the suffering represent darkness. The incessant rain stands for hope and regeneration. Imagary: Candles, lanterns, neighbours and ultimately the recovery of the mother represent light. The poem can also be thought of as symbolic of Good and Evil too. For Best Coaching : TNPSC / NEET/ BANKING/ TET/ TRB-PG / G.K CLASSES 282PASSED TILL 2017AUG 6 SHRI VIDHIYA SHRI COACHING CENTRE , KARAIKUDI 9442738785 , 7200430099 STUDY MATERIALS POLYTECHNIC TRB-ENGLISH –UNIT VII 2. A.K. Ramanujam: A River Attipate Krishnaswami Ramanujan (16 March 1929 – 13 July 1993) also known as A. K. Ramanujan was an Indian poet and scholar of Indian literature who wrote in both English and Kannada. Ramanujan was a poet, scholar, a philologist, folklorist, translator, and playwright. His academic research ranged across five languages: English, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, and Sanskrit. He published works on both classical and modern variants of this literature and argued strongly for giving local, non-standard dialects their due. Though he wrote widely and in a number of genres, Ramanujan's poems are remembered as enigmatic works of startling originality, sophistication and moving artistry. He was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award posthumously in 1999 for his collection of poems, "The Collected Poems".

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