2nd SEMISTER

Prose: Retold Version

Unit – 1

Dignity of Labour

              Once there lived a rich businessman in a town. He had a lazy son. The father wanted his son to work hard and be active. He also wanted his son to know the value of labour.

              One day the father called his son and said, “Go out and earn something. If not, there will be no food for you tonight.” The boy was scared. He did not know what to do. He went crying to his mother. She was moved by his tears. She gave him a gold coin. In the evening the father asked him what he had earned. The boy showed the gold coin. The father asked him to throw it into the well. The son did so.

              The father was a wise man. He guessed that the gold coin was given by his wife. The next day he sent her to her father’s house. Again he asked his son to go out and earn something. This time his sister gave him a rupee coin. The boy showed his father the coin. Again the father asked him to throw that coin too into the well. The boy did so. The father came to know that the boy had taken the help again. He sent his daughter back to her in-law’s house. Once again he sent his son to earn money.

              This time there was no one there to help the boy. He went to the market in search of work. A shop-keeper would offer him two rupees if he carried his bag to his house. The boy agreed to do the work. He had to sweat a lot. His feet were trembling. His neck and back were aching. He returned home and gave the two rupee coin to his father. His father asked him to throw it into the well. The boy cried out in alarm: “Father, I earned this money. My body is aching. My palms have rashes. This is my hard-earned money. You are asking me to throw it into the well?” The father was happy, because his son had realized the value of hard work. The boy vowed never to be lazy. The father handed over the keys of his shop to him.

                                   -----------------   o    --------------------    o      ---------------------

Unit -2

Shabale (Sabala)

         Once there lived a sage in an ashrama (hermitage). His name was Vasishta. He had a cow in his ashrama. Her name was Shabale. Shabale gave Vasistha food, drink, clothes, whatever he asked for. The sage offered to God her milk. She was also able to produce warriors to protect her master and his ashram.

          One day, Kaushika, a king, and his men went to the forest to hunt. They came to Vasistha’sashrama to take rest. The sage welcomed them. He asked them to be his guests. He prayed to Shabale to help him to arrange a meal for them. In minutes, Shabale provided heaps of rice and eatables, fruits and streams of milk and honey. The king Kaushik was very greedy. He wanted to take Shabale to his palace. So he asked Vasistha to give Shabale to him. He offered the sage ten thousand cows in exchange.

Vasistha did not agree to give the cow to the king. The greedy Kaushika was very eager to get Shabale. He even offered his kingdom and asked for Shabale. But Vasistha refused and said, “Shabale belongs to the gods and goddesses. She should not be misused.” Then Kaushika decided to take Shabale by force. He put a rope around Shabale’s neck and pulled her. But she was not ready to go with the king.

Shabale decided to teach the king a lesson. She requested Vasistha. The sage ordered, “Bring forth soldiers to resist Kaushika’s men.” She freed herself, ran and stood near the sage. There was a strange change in her; fire came out of her eyes; her head and neck grew larger; balls of fire came out of her tail; many soldiers came out of her mouth, udder and her sides. These soldiers chased Kaushika and his men away from the ashram.

           From this incident the king learnt that he could not win anything by force. He went into the forest to become a sage himself. He sat in deep meditation for so many years that at last he became a true sage and came to be called Vishwamitra, the friend of the world.

                              ----------    o  ----------o   -----------------

Unit -3

True Friendship

          “Damon and Pythias” is a tale of true friendship in Greek mythology.

          Once upon a time, there was a city named Syracuse and there lived two friends named Damon and Pythias. Both of them were lovers of truth. Dionysius was the king. He was an evil-minded ruler. One day the king heard that Pythias had criticized him. He got very angry and decided to hang Pythias as punishment.

          Pythias prayed to the kingto allow him to meet his mother and sister and settle his familyaffairs before he died. But the king was not ready to grant itas he thought that Pythias might run away. Damon entered the court and requested the king to let Pythias go and finish his duty. He offered himself to be kept in prison until Pythias returned.

          King Dionysius accepted this on one condition that he would fix the day and time for Pythias to return. If Pythias failed to return on the day Damon would die instead of Pythias.

          Pythias went home to settle matters. Then he hurried back to Syracuse. But on the way he had to face many dangers and so was delayed. As a result, Damon was taken out to be hanged. King Dionysius teased Damon saying thatPythias would not return and Damon was a fool. But Damon was very much confident about Pythiasand said that he would be glad to die for his friend.

          At that time, Pythias entered. He asked the king to release his friend and offered himself to be hanged. The king was surprised to listen to Pythias’ words. He was greatly impressed by their friendship and loyalty to each other.

           As a result, the king released both of them.

                     ----------------   o   --------------   o----------------------

                                                               Unit- 4

The Boss Who Cares

India’s rocket launching station is at Thumba, in Thiruvananthapuram city. About seventy scientists were working in the space centre. They were all involved with the task of developing rockets. It was an adventurous, challenging task. All the scientists who were working there were dedicated, committed and responsible. They worked from morning till night and sometimes they would work till midnight. They were all happy to work under their boss and none of them was thinking of quitting the job.

          One day one of the scientists came to the boss and asked for permission to leave the office at half past five in the evening, because he had promised to take his children to the exhibition in the city. He was permitted to leave the office early that day. The scientist was happy and went to work. It was half past eight when he left the office. His boss was not in the office.

          On the way home, he remembered the promise he had made to his children. He felt guilty of disappointing them. He thought about many plans to pacify them and his wife. He was expecting his wife to be angry with him.

          When he reached home, his children were not there. He was surprised to see his wife sitting alone, reading a magazine. She was very calm. He asked his wife about the children. His wife said that his boss had come there at quarter past five and taken the children to the exhibition.

          Actually, the boss was observing the scientist. He was seriously involved with his work even after five in the evening. So the boss didn’t want to disturb him. But at the same time he was not ready to disappoint the children who were very curious to visit the exhibition. So he decided to take them himself.

          This kind of nature and attitude of the boss made all scientists work under him happily even though they had a lot of work-stress.

          The boss was none other than Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam.

                      ------------------     o       -------------------       o             ----------------------

Poems- Summary                                          

                                           1.     Results and Roses

           The poem speaks about the importance of hard work. The man who wants a beautiful garden, small or very big with flowers growing here and there must work hard by bending his back and digging.

           There are very few things on earth, which one can attain through one’s wishes. In other words, with mere wishes we cannot attain anything in the world. If we want something worthy or useful we have got to work to gain it.

           It does not matter what goal we seek, the secret of achieving it simply lies in the fact that we have got to work steadily just as we have got to dig from week to week in our garden to get roses.

                                    ----------------------------------------

                                             2.     King Midas

               King Midas was in his chamber. He was counting his gold coins when a sunbeam entered the room through a small hole in the wall and it touched the floor quivering. Seeing that, king Midas muttered to himself that it would be nice if that broad bright ray of light were gold. Suddenly a stranger stood in a soft light. He was as bright as a star. The stranger told king Midas to have his wish.

                The stranger was an angel from heaven and his voice was like all sweet sounds of the morning mixed in one sound. King Midas slept and woke up in the morning with great eagerness to test the wonderful spell of the angel. The heavy edge of the curtain which he held in his hand became magnificent and it hung by the rich purple curtain like a shining mass of flame. In other words, whatever he touched became gold.

                 He walked across his garden and even the leaves and the flowers became gold at his touch. Then he heard the voice of his dear little daughter who was crying as sweetly as a sorrowful bird. She stood before him sobbing and held a golden rose in her hand. She was sobbing because the rose had turned into gold. It was pitiful for him to see the tears in her blue eyes. He called her near him, bent and kissed her cheek to comfort her. Suddenly a fearful thing happened, all because of heavenly powers (the angel’s spell); his daughter became a gold statue and he sank back shuddering (trembling with fear) and was greatly shocked. His daughter stood still as death with neither motion nor breath. Then the angel’s voice came like music as fresh as the morning air. The voice asked Midas whether his wish had been fulfilled. Immediately King Midas shouted back asking the angel to take his terrible gift back because it was not blessing but a curse to him. He realized that one loving heart was more precious than the gold of the universe. In other words, living things are better than lifeless gold.

                        --------------------------------------------------------------

                                               3.   Friends

             The poem describes natural things around us like the sky, the wind, the sunshine, the tree and the grass as friends. The speaker in the poem says that it is very good to lie a little while under the tree looking up through its leaves. The sky is like a kind big smile bent sweetly over him. The sunshine dances through the cover of leaves above his head and kisses him upon his face like mother before bed. The wind comes stealing over the grass to whisper pleasant things to him. Though he cannot see the wind (him) passing, he feels its presence (his careful wings).

            Therefore the speaker says there are many gentle friends near us whom we cannot see and so a child should never feel fear wherever he may be. The poet says that a child has no reason to be afraid of anything in the company of nature.

                                     -----------------------------------

                                             4.   Believe

             The speaker in the poem ‘Believe’ tells us to believe in love, faith and truth. He also tells us to believe in ourselves. We have the power to prevail or succeed in the face of all difficulties. Further, he tells us to believe in strength, courage and honour.

             According to the speaker, everyone has the power to be good at heart. Still further, he wants us to believe in song, dance and culture because everyone is unique, no matter who we are and where we are from. Finally, he calls for our belief in time, forever and self, because everything is possible as long as we believe in ourselves.

                                                ---------------------------

                                          5.   Paper Boats

              The speaker in the poem is a child. The child floats her paper boats everyday one by one down the running stream. She writes her name and also the name of her village on them in big black letters. She hopes that someone in some strange land will find them and know who she is. She loads her little boats with shiuli flowers from her garden and hopes that these early morning flowers will be carried safely to land in the night. She launches her paper boats and looks up into the sky and sees the little clouds moving being pushed by the wind.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------               

Courtesy: Prof. Lokesh Hedge, Dr. A.v.Baliga College, Kumta.

 

GUIDANCE :

ShriV.R.Naik B.E.O., Honnavar.

Shri. V. R.Nayak Incharge.Co-ordinator BRC Honnavar

                                Smt. SubhaNayak Lecture DIET Kumta

: RESOURCE PERSONS:

Smt. Kamala Bhagwat Asst. Teacher MHPS Haldipur Smt. NetravatiBhat Asst. Teacher HPS Guddebal

Shri. ShashidharDevadiga Asst. Teacher, HPS Madgeri ShriYasinBikhba Asst. Teacher, HPS Urdu Manki

Co-ordination :JanardhanNaik BRP

Courtesy:

          Prof. Lokesh Hedge, Dr. A.v.Baliga College, Kumta