MALALA YOUSAFZAI’S SPEECH TO THE UNITED NATIONS – 2013

MALALA YOUSAFZAI’S SPEECH TO THE UNITED NATIONS – 2013

INTRODUCTION:

Malala Yousafzai was born on 12^th July 1997 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan. On 9^th October 2012, a Taliban gunman shot her when she rode home on a bus after taking an exam. This received worldwide media coverage. When she was just 16 years old, she spoke at the UN to call for worldwide access to education. On 10^th October 2014, she was the co-recipient of the 2014 Nobel peace prize. She is an active proponent for education as a fundamental, social and economic right.

MALALA’S GRATITUDE:

She began her speech by thanking the most merciful, God. Then she thanked every person who had prayed for her fast recovery. She thanked all the children whose words had encouraged her. Then she thanked the doctors and staff of the hospitals in Pakistan, UK and the UAE government for their support.

She showed her gratitude to the members of UN.

MALALA DAY:

She said “MALALA DAY” is not her day. It is the day of everyone who had raised their voice for their rights. She said that she is one among the thousands of people who were killed and injured by the terrorists. She had raised her voice not that because she can shout but those without a voice can be heard and also for those who have fought for peace, dignity, equality and education.

THE TRAGEDY:

On 9^th October 2012, a Taliban shot her on the left side of her forehead along with her friends thinking that the bullet would silence them but out of that silence came thousands of voices. The terrorists thought that this would change their aims and ambition but her “weakness, fear and hopelessness” has only changed into “strength, power, and courage”.

MALALA’S TEACHERS:

She says that she speaks for the education of the daughters of the Taliban too. She said that she would not shot the Taliban who shot her even if she had a gun. She says that this is the compassion that she had learnt from Muhammad- the – Prophet, Jesus Christ and Lord Buddha. This is the legacy that she had inherited from Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and Mohammad Ali Jinnah. This is the philosophy of non-violence from Gandhiji, Bacha Khan and Mother Teresa. This is the act of forgiveness that she had learnt from her father and mother.

TALIBAN’S ATTACK:    

The extremists are afraid of the power of education and voices of women, which bring changes in the society. That’s why they had killed 14 medical students, female teachers, and polio workers and are blasting schools every day. They think that God is a tiny being who send girls to hell if they go to school. They are misusing Islam and Pashtun society for their personal benefits. She points out that Islam says that the right to education is the duty and responsibility of every child.

GLOBAL SUFFERAGE:

Globally women and children are suffering in many ways. In Pakistan and Afghanistan they are suffering from terrorism. The Afghan people are suffering due to the hurdles of extremism for many decades. Young girls are forced to do domestic labor and get married at early age.  In India they are suffering from child labor. Many schools are destroyed in Nigeria. She says that poverty, ignorance, injustice, racism and the deprivation of basic rights are the main problems faced by both men and women.

MALALA’S REQUEST:

She asks the women to fight against these by themselves instead of calling men activists to do for them. She calls all the global leaders to change the strategic policies in favor of peace and prosperity to protect women and children’s rights. She requests all the governments to ensure compulsory education, fight against terrorism and violence. She called the developed nations to help the educational opportunities of girls in the developing nation. She called upon all the communities to be tolerant to reject prejudice based on caste, creed, sect, religion and gender.

EDUCATION IS THE SOLUTION:

She stresses that education and schools are necessary for every child’s bright future. We should strive hard to achieve peace and education for everyone. We should believe in the power and strength of our words. As we are united for the cause of education let us all empower ourselves with knowledge and shield by unity. She wants us to wage a global struggle against illiteracy, poverty and terrorism.

CONCLUSION:

She concludes her speech by saying that we have to fight against the evil with our books and pens. They are the most powerful weapons. “ONE CHILD, ONE TEACHER, ONE PEN AND ONE BOOK” can change the world. Education is the only solution. Education first. This is what she stresses again and again.      

The Summer Garden

The Summer Garden

Outline of the Essay

Introduction

The Poet’s wish

Description of The Summer Garden

Conclusion

Introduction:

Anna Akhmatova is the pen name of Anna Andreyevna Gorenko of Russia.  She is famous for being modernistic in her views.  Her poems mostly deal with the difficulties of living and about meditations on time and memory.

The Summer Garden:

Between the Fontanka, Moika and the Swan Canal in Saint Petersburg, Russia, there is an island.  The Summer Garden is located there.  As it is near the Summer Palace of Peter the Great, it has got its name as “Summer Garden”.

The Poet’s wish about the garden:

The poet wishes to see roses in that garden where the best of the Walls rise up in the world.

Description of the Garden:

River Neva flows near the garden.  Beautiful statues located there in the garden remind her of her past youthful days.  There is a deep silence in the garden but in that one can feel the fragrance of the garden.  The Linden or the time wood trees look royal and the poet imagines the creaking sound of the ship’s masts.

            A swan admiring the beauty of the garden looks doubly beautiful as it floats on the water.  This garden would have been a delight to the hundreds and thousands of vistors.  There would be friends or enemies or both.

            The poet visualizes a silent procession of shadows endless in sight from the granite vases to the palace door.  Also the poet imagines that some of them would have been in love, whispering to each other in those white nights.

Conclusion:

The Summer Garden is therefore a place of joy, love, dreams and wishes of many.  All is lit up with mother - of - pearl and jasper but the origin of such colourfulness of creativity is mysteriously hidden.

The Conjurer's Revenge by Stephen Leacock

“THE CONJURER’S REVENGE” by Stephen Leacock

OUTLINE OF THE ESSAY:

·        INTRODUCTION

·        THE CONJURER

·        QUICK MAN

·        THE CONJURER’S SHOW

·        THE FAMOUS JAPANESE TRICK

·        THE CONJURER’S REVENGE

·        CONCLUSION

INTRODUCTION: ‘The Conjurer's Revenge’ by Stephen Leacock is a humorous short story.  A Conjurer deals smartly with a troublesome person known as the Quick Man for spoiling his magic show.

THE CONJURER: The Conjurer is a skilled magician who performs magic tricks for an audience. He was so talented that he could produce even a fish bowl from a piece of empty cloth. He could do difficult tricks like extracting eggs from a hat. During a show, he meets the Quick Man who unnecessarily spoils the show. Initially, the conjurer ignores him and continues with the show. Towards the end, the conjurer decides to take his revenge on the Quick Man.

QUICK MAN: A ‘Quick Man’ is referred to a person who is crazy and fast in grasping, quick-witted but cunning.  Among the audience, there was one such man who whispered at the end of every trick that it was all fraud.   This upset the conjurer and spoiled the magical effect for the audience. He can be called as the villain in the story.

THE CONJURER’S SHOW: The conjurer performed several tricks for the audience. From the beginning of the show, the Quick Man keeps spoiling the show for the conjurer. He kept saying the audience that the trick was done with the help of items hidden up the conjurer’s sleeve. When the conjurer produced a fish bowl from a piece of empty cloth, the Quick Man said that this must have been up his sleeve. The next trick was the famous Hindostanee rings. He joined two separate rings into one with a blow. The Quick Man whispered that he had another lot up his sleeve. The conjurer worried a lot but he continued his tricks.

 The conjurer got a hat from the audience and extracted seventeen eggs in thirty five seconds. The audience thought it was wonderful but the Quick Man told he had a hen up his sleeve. The egg trick was ruined. The conjurer got the same response for all his tricks. According to the Quick Man, the conjurer must have had rings, eggs, cards, bread, a live guinea pig and a rocking chair hidden up his sleeve. These constant comments by the Quick Man made the audience feel that the tricks were nothing special. This upset the conjurer. However, he went on performing one trick after the other till he could take it no more. He decided to take revenge.

THE FAMOUS JAPANESE TRICK: The conjurer announced that he would be showing the famous Japanese trick. Appearing to perform a trick using items borrowed from Quick Man, he took the Quick Man's watch and broke it to pieces. The Quick Man told the audience that the watch had been slipped into the conjurer’s sleeve. The conjurer then took the Quick Man’s handkerchief and punched holes in it. The Quick Man thought that this was a trick which he did not understand. The conjurer then took the Quick Man’s hat and trampled on it. He then proceeded to burn the Quick Man’s collar and smashed his spectacles. The Quick Man, all the while thought that this was just a trick. However, later the Quick Man and the entire audience realized that what the conjurer did with the Quick Man’s things were not tricks.

THE CONJURER’S REVENGE: The conjurer's revenge was complete after he destroyed the belongings of the Quick Man. The conjurer had succeeded in fooling the Quick Man with his permission. Thus the conjurer took his revenge. The humorous part of the story is the seriousness with which he asked for the various items of the Quick Man. The conjurer kept up the suspense till the end of the show by not letting either Quick Man or the audience realize that the “trick” that he was performing at the end of the show was not a trick but the real destruction of the possessions of the Quick Man. At no point of time did the Quick Man realized that the Conjurer was taking his revenge.

CONCLUSION:  The moral of the story is that, when we cannot appreciate a person, we should learn to keep it to ourselves. If we unnecessarily irritate or cause any harm to another person, we will have to face the consequences.

The Toys- Poem by Coventry Patmore

The Toys by Coventry Patmore

OUTLINE OF THE ESSAY:

·       INTRODUCTION

·       CHILD’S DISOBEDIENCE

·       FATHER REGRETS

·       THE TOYS

·       GOD IS MERCIFUL

·       CONCLUSION

INTRODUCTION:  “The Toys” is one of the most beautiful poems written by Coventry Patmore. He was born in London in 1823. He associates his poems with the everyday happenings of life and has a deep concern for religion.  His publications are, ‘The Angel in the House’, ‘The Unknown Eros’ and other odes. Patmore died in 1896.

The poem, ‘The Toys’ is highly religious. The poem relates the story of a father and son. The father treats his son harshly but later realizes his mistake and asks God to forgive him for his foolish behaviour.

CHILD’S DISOBEDIENCE: The poet tells us how he punished his son for disobedience. The child acted and talked just like a grown up man. He made noise. His father asked him to keep quiet but the son did not obey him. At seventh time, the father punished his son and sent him away without the usual kisses. The child was much grieved. He left his father and went to bed.

FATHER REGRETS:  After sometime, the poet realized that he had made a mistake, as his son was lonely since his mother had died. He feared that the child might not be able to sleep due to his grief. He went to his bedside, but he found the child asleep. His eyelids were swollen due to weeping. His eye lashes were still wet with the drops of tears.

THE TOYS: The father became more emotional when he found that his son had very neatly arranged some pieces of glass, a red veined stone, some shells and a bottle of blue bells and two French copper coins on the table. They were simple but enough to comfort him. He noticed that the boy had sought consolation in small ordinary objects to comfort his sad heart. It was a touching scene for the father whose wife was dead and there was no one to console the child. He felt sorry for his attitude. The father bent over the child and kissed away the tears from the boy’s cheeks, but tears from his own eyes dropped on his son’s face.

GOD IS MERCIFUL:  In this poem the poet points out that God is always kind and merciful to man but man often fails to follow the commands of his creator. He provides man with all the simple joys of life. Yet there are some who do not fear God even on their death bed. God knows that though we had been disobeying His commands and enjoying ourselves with worldly things, yet He forgives us.

CONCLUSION: The father hopes that as he has forgiven his son God would pardon him for his childishness. He prayed all night with the feeling that God is merciful and He would forgive him.

Moral: As the saying goes ‘To err is human; to forgive is divine’ we should forgive the mistakes of people and live friendly with all. God is merciful on us and he forgives those people who forgive the mistakes of human beings.