The Renaissance in India

 

Introduction:-

                      The conquest of India by the British during the 18th and 19th century exposed some of the serious weakness and drawbacks of Indian social institutions. As a result, several individuals and organised movements sought to bring changes in social, religious and cultural practices with a view to reforming and revitalizing the society. These efforts were collectively known as the "Indian Renaissance".

                    Indian Renaissance appears as a  awakening of the latent society, quivering with the threats of orthodoxy, dowry and narrow cast system. Moreover, foreign colonialism at that time was an intense blight over India. Several social uprising and organisations were developed to liberate the society from the shackles of superstitions. Renaissance in Indian literature includes several significant creative works of renowned authors. Indian literature as a whole, experienced a new beginning with the Hindu Renaissance in the beginning of mid 19th century. Which is mostly centred on Bengal province, eminent authors like Rabindranath Tagore and Bankim Chandra chattopadhyay contributed significantly in the Renaissance in Indian literature by establishing a literary genre of the nation, no more the borrowed tongue.

Beginning of Renaissance:-

                     Renaissance India begin with arrival of sir William Jones. He founded the Bengal Asiatic society, published various renderings of Shakuntalam and Hitopadesha and wrote series of odes to Hindu Gods. The ruling ideas of the French revolution fired the imagination of Derozio, which led him to know the castigation, Hindu beliefs and custom of India which was like toxic. The Derozio men was accepting the certitude of Christian faith, it carried the ceaseless war against Hinduism. All these things were affected in India. It's influences led the mind of Indians to tried to westernise their lives and outlook of life.

                    Raja Rammohan Roy had been attracted to the west. He saw many belief of Hinduism. To seek the truth, he went to to Vedas and Upanishads. He found there many foolish things like Sati, Cast and idolatry. At that time he was alone. With the help of few friends, to perish that ideas, he found Brahmo samaj or Brahma Sabha in 1828. It was continued by Prince Dwarkanath Tagore. The members of Brahma Sabha were require 7 vows.

                     Raja Rammohan Roy had started several great tasks of national reconstruction. Ishvar Chandra Vidyasagar became prominent social reformer after him, who was "an informal gladiator, whom no adversary could oversaw regeneration come in argument". The task of religious regeneration was taken up by Keshub Chunder Sen. He seems to have created a great impression on his hearers. Rev. Joseph Cook declared that; 

Keshub Chunder Sen is an orator born, not made. He has a splendid physique, excellent quality of organisation, capacity of sudden heat and of tremendous impetuosity and lightning like swiftness of thought and expression, combined with a most iron self-control.

                  The Hindu leader, from the Punjab, Dayanand Saraswati, founder of Arya samaj was very important reformer. Dayanand Saraswati wanted a return to Hinduism in its pristine Vedic simplicity, clarity and spirituality. Dayanand's work was continued by Lala Hanssaj, Swami Shradhanand and Lala Lajpat Rai.

               In Bombay, the movement for religious reform or regeneration took the form of Prarthana Samaj. Poona and Bombay were important intellect centres. Many of the young man that passed out of the colleges were possessed of an idealism and capacity for intellectual discipline that were rather exceptional. Social reform, educational reform and religious reform had to go together. The prarthana Samaj didn't dissociate itself from the parent  Hindu community, but was content to  continue the tradition of the prophets and saints of Mahabharata. Kashinath Trambak Telang and Mahadev Govind Ranade were the leaders of  the movement. 

                    Kashinath Telang read Browning's Stuart Mill, deeply read English and Sanskrit and translated Bhagvad Gita for the sacred  books of the  East series. 

Telang had a perfect house of commons style, capable of playing upon the moods of an intellectual audience with the skill of a musician upon a familiar instrument.

                     His activities were manifold the Prarthana Samaj, the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha, its quarterly journal, the oratory Encouragement society, the Indian National Congress. Ranade has also been called rightly the Father of Indian Economics; and Mr. A. O. Hume, the founder of the Indian National Congress, himself called Rande, his "Political Guru". 

                    Ranade and Telang were choice spirits, and Bombay and all india benefited greatly from their educative work. Telang was more intellectual, Ranade was more intuitive; Telang was a Thinker an advocate, a wise councellor, but Ranade was not only these but also a sage who knew all, and ready with consolation at the right time.

                      Like Ranade and Telang, Sir Narayan Chandavarkar was also journalist, judge, orator, politician, Prarthana Samajist, all rolled in one.

                       The new education game Madras a succession of able lawyers, jurists, teachers, journalists and administrators. The real ferment in Madras came from an initially foreign movement The Theosophical Society. It was a western attempt to fuse with the spring of Indian spirituality, founded at New York in 1875 by Madam Bavatsky, Annie Besant. She was again a little responsible for the starting of the general Hindu College at Banaras. 

                   The old "Avatars" and Massiahs, Rama and Krishna, Mahavir and Buddha, Shankara and Ramanuja, the mystic singers and saints were dimmed distance, while Rammohan Roy, Keshub Sen, Dayanand and Ranade were but superlatively gifted with men not Avatars or Massiahs. Ramkrishna Paramhansa occurred at the nick of time, occurred in Bengal. He save Indian culture and set it on new foundations. Romain Rolland rightly saw in Ramakrishna,

The consummation of two thousand years of The spiritual life of three hundred million people and his owl animates modern India.

                   When Ramakrishna passed away, his disciple Swami Vivekananda established Ramkrishna mission, a spiritual and humanitarian movement that has been doing not able work.

                   Today, principle organ of the Ramakrishna mission is the monthly English journal Prabudhha Bharata. However, Rajam Iyer steepd in English, Sanskrit and Tamil. He is Kamalambal is one of the great novels in Tamil, first Tamil novel. Left incomplete, for all its delicates mangling of light and shade, and the plays of humour and fantasy, the novel is a promise more than an achievement, but like Derozio, Rajam Iyer too died young before he could redeem the promise of his youth.

Conclusion:-

                    Thus, Renaissance was the most important time period in the development of humanity because of the significant adjustments in science, exploration, the church government, art and writing. In the medieval period, the society had fallen into a deep slumber. Significant amounts of people decided to adhere to ideas that were to thought up by blind thinkers. The Renaissance was an awakening to reality.

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The Nightingale and the Rose 🌹

About author:-

              Oscar Fungal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright. He was born on 16th October 1854 in Ireland and died on 30th November 1900 in France at the age of 46. He was known for his acclaimed works including "The picture of Dorian gray" and "the importance of being earnest", as well as his brilliant wit, flamboyant style and infamous imprisonment for homosexuality. 

About the story:- 

                'The Nightingale and the Rose' is a fairytale by Oscar Wilde included in his 1888 collection, 'The happy Prince and other tales'. It is about romantic love. The story contains two aspects of love, one is pure love, which is described by the bird Nightingale who supports lover and another is conditional and materialistic love, which is described by the daughter of professor who tells the student to get red for her if he wants to dance with her at the Prince's ball. At the end of the story we can examine that the sacrifice of nightingale becomes vain when she refuses to dance with him because someone has given her jewelry.

Critical analysis:-

                    The story Nightingale and the rose is about the romantic love. It is about the student who is in love with professor's daughter. While sitting in the branches of the Oak-tree, the Nightingale overhears the Student lamenting the fact that his sweetheart will not dance with him unless he brings her a red rose. The story is about conditional love which we can see in very first line of the story, by the statement of the student,

"She said that she would dance with me if I brought her Red roses."

               The Prince is giving the ball the following night but although, the student loves her a lot, both will be there, but as per the condition she will not dance with him without a red rose. To fulfill her wish, he goes to his garden but he later come to know that his garden doesn't have any roses. The Nightingale knows the real meaning of love after watching the grief of the student and how rare true love is. Impressed by the apparent depth of the Student's emotion, she decides to help him secure the girl's affections.

            The Nightingale first flies to a White Rose-tree standing in the center of a plot of grass and asks him for a red rose. He tells her that all his roses are white, but advises her to find his brother, the Yellow Rose-tree standing next to a sun-dial. The Nightingale flies to him and is again disappointed. The Yellow Rose-tree in turn suggests that she visit his brother underneath the Student's window. This Rose-tree replied that it had red roses but because of winter, it is frozen, its branches has broken by the storms. So it hadn't any roses over tree. Disparate Nightingale asks if there is a way to produce a single red rose. The suggestion is given by the tree to built Red Rose out of music by moonlight and stain it with the nightingale's heart's blood.

           The Nightingale presents the philosophy of life and love and decides to sacrifice her life for love. By the moonlight she stands infront of throne and starts to sing the song. Her song is first about the birth of love, then the birth of passion in the soul of man and a maid, then love which is perfected by death and at last only burst of music. Finally the red rose is completed and the Nightingale dies. At noon student sees this wonderful red rose and ran up to professor's house with the red rose in hid hand and gives it to his beloved.

            But now the conclusion came with the disappointment of student by the reply of her that another suitor, the Chamberlain’s nephew, has sent her jewels, which are more valuable than flowers, so she says she will dance with him instead at the ball that night. He throws the red rose into the gutter, where a cart rolls over it. As he walks home, he decides to reject Love in favour of Logic and Philosophy, which have a more practical use.

Themes:-

Conclusion:- 

   

                     To sum up, we can see thay the  sacrifice of the Nightingale goes wasted and is not appreciated by anyone except the red rose-tree who knew about the seriousness of her intended sacrifice. It also shows that the sacrifices made for others are not given importance rather material pursuits are more important for people.

                     

Present tense

 

Introduction:-

           Tense is the basic concept of English grammar. Learning tenses is the first step to learn English language. Tenses is a way of using correct form of a verb in a sentence to express an action with regard to the correct time of its occurrence. We speak and hear many sentences in our daily life.  Each sentences express an action along with time of its occurrence. Each of those sentences belong to a specific tense. Tenses can be broadly classified into three categories,

1. Present tense
2. Past tense
3. Future tense

                 Here we will discuss the present tense,

★  Present tense:-

             There are many uses of tense. In English grammar, we use present tense to talk about something that is going on now (currently) or that is true now and anytime. In other words, we use present tense to describe an event in real time. The present tense is of four types. namely,

• Simple present tense 
• Present continuous tense 
• Present perfect tense 
• Present perfect continuous tense

 1. Simple present tense:-

             The simple present tense uses the verb form as the root form of the verb. We use the simple present tense in the following conditions;

→ To describe things that are always true or situation that exist now and as far as we know it will go on indefinitely. 

Ex.,.  

• It takes me five minutes to get to the school.
• Trees grow more quickly in summer than in winter.

→ To talk about habits of things that happen on a regular basis.

Ex.,.

• I leave work at 5:30 most days
• Each July we go to Turkey for holiday

→ We often use the present simple with verbs that perform the action they describe.

• Ex,. I refuse to believe that he didn't know the car was stolen. ( =A Refusal)

There is other performative verbs that perform the action. Like,

Accept, acknowledge, advise, apologize, assume, deny, guarantee, hope, inform, predict, promise, recommend, suggest, suppose, warn.. etc.

→We often prefer to use the present simple rather than the present continuous with verbs describing States. 

• Ex., I really enjoy travelling.

→ we use present simple to describe main event of the story or Joke.

                     When singular form of the subject or a singular pronoun is used, the verb is used the simple present tense by '-s' or '-es' to it.

Like.,

• He goes to library often. 
• I always wake up at 6 a.m. 
• She plays football everyday.

          

2. Present continuous tense:-

                         The present continuous tense is used to show an activity that is in progress or not complete at the time of speaking. Activity started in the past and will go into future. The present continuous tense of any verb is formatted with auxiliary verb to be (am, is, are) and the present participle of the main verb ( verb+ing). The auxiliary verb varies according to the person used with the present continuous tense.

Like,

• I'm eating pasta with sauce.
• She is reading a book on silence.
• Police are investigating a dead body that was burnt beyond recognition.

                 We use present continuous tense with the following conditions;

∆ to talk about particular actions or events that have begin but haven't  end that at the time of speaking.

Ex., 

• The car isn't starting again.
• I am trying to get through to Joan.

∆ We use time expressions such as at the moment, at present, currently, just and still to emphasis that the event or action is happening now.

Ex., 

• Have you done the shopping? I am just going.

∆ When we describe repeated actions or events that are happening at or around the time of speaking, we use the present continuous tense.

Ex.,

• I am hearing a lot of good reports about your work these days.

∆ To imply that situation is or may be temporary.

Ex.,

• She is teaching English in a school. (it may no permanent)

∆ We can use the present continuous with some state verbs when we want to emphasis that a situation is temporary for a period around the present.

Ex.,

• I am considering taking early retirement.

∆ Some words used to describe a temporary state (like ache, feel, hurt, look, seem), there is little difference in meaning when we use present simple or present continuous. Like.,

• He is looking awful.

∆ to talk about changes, development and trends. Like.,

• The growing number of visitors is demanding footpath.

We use present continuous when we tell a story or joke to describe the longer or background event. Present continuous also used to give compliments and to emphasis on something is done repeatedly.

3. Present perfect tense:-

                      Present perfect tense is used to express an action that has been completed or has occurred recently. This tense expresses the sense of completion of an action in recent time. In this tense we need to use the past participle of the verb and helping verb have or has according to its subject.

We use present perfect tense in the following conditions;

=⟩ When we talk about something that happened in the past, but we don't specify a precisely when it happened, we use the present perfect.

Ex, 

• I have complained about the traffic before.

=⟩ When we use the present perfect, it suggests some kind of connection between what happened in the past and the present time. We use this tense to say something that happened in the past affects the situation that exists now.

Ex, 

• I have washed my hands so that I can help you with the cooking.

=⟩ When we talk about how long an existing situation has lasted, even if we don't give a specific length of time, we use the present perfect. Ex,

• They have grown such a lot since we last saw them.

=⟩ We use the present perfect to say that an action or event has been repeated a number of times up to now. Ex,

• They have been to Chile three times.

4. Present perfect continuous tense:-

                  We use the present perfect continuous when the focus is on an action that has not yet been completed or has been completed. The present perfect continuous tense is made up of the helping verb(Have/Has), past participle of the infinitive and present participle( Verb + ing). 

We use present perfect continuous tense in following conditions;

♦ We use the present perfect continuous to talk about the situation or activity that started in the past and has been in process for a period until now. Sometimes we use distance with expressions that indicate the time period ( e.g, with since and for).

Ex,

• She has been living in New Zealand for over a year now.

♦ We use this tense to say how long something has been in progress. Ex,

• I have been trying to get permission to extend my house.

♦ We can use this tense when we talk about a situation or activity that started in the past and is still happening now or has just stopped. 

Ex,

• It has been raining heavily all night.

Conclusion:-

             

                  In short, the present tense is  significant facet of tenses and also of English grammar, which demonstrates the ways of our daily conversation sentences.

          

Still you Can... My first poem in English

                

              Time is an excuse

It is not a good or bad place

But it is a superstition of the mind

Get rid of superstition, be courageous

Then people will welcome you

Time is an excuse.

What can stop you today or tomorrow?

So, overcome obstacles, create a new path

Increase the passion to face every single trouble

Then people will upload your success

Time is an excuse

Even though everyone speaks a lot today

Don't pay attention, just ignore it

Recognise your inner strength

Then people will enhance your work

Time is an excuse

I've never seen any boundaries of the character

But yes... I have really seen that

People are addicted to rumours

Don't cry face it

Brighten up your existence

Then people will change their mind

Time is an excuse

Networking and Socialising

Introduction:-

When all things are equal people prefer to do business with friends. And they even prefer to do business with friends when things are not equal.

                                   - Mark McCormack

                   

            Networking and Socialising are significant facets to build long- lasting business relationship based on trust and mutual respect, especially while working internationally. It is vital to maintain good personal relationship to make difficult business discussion and decision easier to handle. In some cultures the strong business relationship is even more important to maintain strong business relationship or to improve the business English related Networking and Socialising. For that there is five steps, which are.,

1. Say "Hello" properly
2. Make active small talk
3. Look for "Hot buttons"
4. SOFTEN your approach
5. Grab opportunities

                      

1. Say "Hello" property:-

                      It is said that "you never have a second chance to make a first impression". So in business, to take a pleasant initiative is vital. Crystal clear, mirror like reply is always amiable by the business partner. The word "hello" will tell our business partner how we are feeling about meeting them. It can be highly formal or informal. There is many ways to reply their greetings like;

• It's an honour to meet you.
• How do you do?
• How are you doing?
• How are things?
• Hi there.

               Instead of simple reaction, it's an opportunity to take an initiative; for that the first requirement is to "be proactive" and "be flexible".  It depends on the situation of a person to be too friendly or too choose an informal greeting. When we greet people first time, the phrase "Nice to meet you" is friendly but business like and easy to get reply "Nice to meet you, too". After saying "Hello", it is difficult to introduce yourself, which can cause cultural problems. It differs from country to country or culture to culture. For instance,

In Germany, you might offer only their  family name. Like Schmidt.But in Sweden, you might only offer the first name, Like Manfred. But while working internationally, we need to use both name, which is one of the ways to "Be Proactive". But that time don't say "I am Manfred Schmidt".  This indicates that your business partner  has to choose either Manfred or Mr Schmidt. Instead we have to indicate what we want to be called Schmidt or Manfred.

             So to make it clear, we have to say that "Hi there! I am Manfred, Manfred Schmidt". It means that a person telling you to call him by his first name. In international business situation this approach is the best one. It means that your first two sentences would be like this,

"Nice to meet you, I am Manfred, Manfred Schmidt."

2. Make active small talk:-

            The criteria of small talk differs from culture to culture. Some demands it, whilst other ignore it. But in international business communication, small active talk become extremely helpful. You can start to break the ice or take an initiative by talking about neutral or non controversial topics. Neutral topics like, the weather, the trip, the hostel and the town - all are easy to talk about without disagreement or controversy. In Britain, there is three taboos subjects for small talk - politics, sex and religion, because it may become an argument to talk about them. All the impact of the small talk in business may ruin your business relationship. Even if you come from a country where small talk is not part of your culture, try to use it as an icebreaker with your international guests before the meeting like, in the taxi, at the airport or over a coffee.

         Small talk is like a friendly game of tennis. The idea is to keep the ball going backwards and forwards over the net. The main linguistic tool in successful small talk is to ask the open questions whose answer should not simple "yes or no", instead asking open questions can help to inviting longer answers to make easier to develop a conversation. For open questions use the "W" question words instead, like.,

What? Why? When? Where? Who? Which? How?

        Such questions will open up the conversation and start the ball rolling, but do remember that to keep your end of the tennis game going. Even when your partner ask you a question that you could answer them with a single word, don't use only a single word, instead answer them with sentence and ask an open question of your own.

3. Look for "hot buttons":-

              Everyone have hot buttons means personal interest. These are very important to us. Like, family, travelling, sports, pets, hobbies, etc. Friendship often based on two people having same 'hot buttons' means same interest.

           In international business you need to become a "hot button" in detective, which means to look for whether you and your business partner have any in common. Peepal leaves clues about their personal interest in their conversation with you. When in coffee break your business partners says "Did you see the game on television last night?" It's another way of saying "Is football one of your hot buttons?" When your business partner stays, "I hope we finish on time. I have got some tickets for the theatre this evening.' they are saying 'Do you like the theatre?' So don't just reply "Yes or I see". Follow it up like a good detective. Tell them you support real Madrid or Chelsea.  Ask what play they are going to see. And the most important is to offer some information back. Tell that you prefer rugby to football. Tell them you went to see a good film last week.

         In some cases, to ask someone a direct question about their family might be embarrassing for your business partner. For instance,

If you ask him, "Are you married?"  the answer might be like "Actually my wife has just run off with my best friend and taken the kids with her".

Instead, it will be easy for you to say that "your wife and kids are away this weekend holiday and that you are going to join them at the weekend". After that your partner may give you information about their family if they feel comfortable about it.

4. SOFTEN your approach:-

             There are three key areas to think about when meeting our business partner,

• What to say
• How to say it
• How we act

             But we often concentrate on Hard words its pronunciation and intonation and forget the nonverbal side of communication. For that we need to SOFTEN our approach. It is about how non-verbal signals are important.

• S - Smile
• O - Open gesture
• F - Forward lean
• T - Touch
• E - Eye contact
• N - Nod

★ S - Smile:-  A friendly face helps people feel welcome and more relaxed. While concentrating on getting the language right, we often forget to smile, our official expressions become serious, our forehead creases up and we come across as critical, cold and unfriendly.

★ O - Open gesture:- During conversation it becomes important to gesture naturally and sit with your feet together on the floor. Sitting with arms and legs crossed can affect our speaking partner. It seems like we are closed to other person's Ideas or the relationship. Though we do it because we are working in English, not because of the relationship.

★ F - Forward lean:- When we want to show interest in other person we lean forward. It creates a positive "I am with you" feeling.

★ T - Touch:- We only touch each other in business when shake hands at the start of the meeting. We judge people negatively if the handshake is too aggressive or of the "wet-fish" variety. A good international handshake is firm but not too firm and lasts for two or three shakes.

★ E - Eye contact:- It varies according to cultural background. According to some studies, during the average European conversation, 

• The listener looks at the speaker 75% of the time
• The speaker looks at the listener 40% of the time
• The average length of mutual eye contact is 1.5 seconds

          It will perceived as being aggressive if we stare at each other without breaking eye contact. In some cultures the eye are lowered during a conversation to show respect, but in most cultures we need to reassure ourselves that your partner is still listening. For that we need eye contact, it is a way of getting feedback on how our ideas are being received.

★ N - Nod :- Moving your head up and down to indicate agreement encourages your speaking partner to open up. Your nodding tell them that you are listening and that you want them to continue speaking. The non-verbal signals working very significantly, especially when working with second language. It helps to correct misunderstandings. In most of the cases signals are more believable than the words.

5. Grab opportunities:-

           We are surrounded by opportunity to practice our Socialising skills, but the only need is to grab them with both hands. Look for opportunities to use English during your normal work activities, like in brakes and dead periods.

★ Whenever you get English speaker visit your organisation, grab the chance to practice your English with them. See it as an opportunity rather than an imposition.

★ There are probably several of your colleagues who would also like to practice their English. Arrange weekly English only lunch or coffee break or even an English pub night every month.

★ If you have a regular English speaking contact on the phone or a native speaker colleague, to build a friendly trainee-mentor relationship. Because many native speakers like to become the expert and coach.

★ To practice your networking skills in English, you need to go on business training programmes, where you have to use English to communicate with other trainees.

★ There are many friendship societies where you can meet people from other cultures and where English is the medium of communication. So go there and join English speaking organisation.

★ Chat with English speakers while on holiday because it's a safe environment for making and correcting mistakes.

★ To havw small talk in English with your family helps you to improve your English as well as your children's and your partner's English, too.

           In short, look for every opportunity to extend your personal and professional network in English, which help you to building up your confidence and giving yourself the chance of doing it even more successful the next time.

Conclusion:- 

            To sum up, we can say that networking and socializing skills are very important to build long-standing relationship with our business partner.