Dijkstra’s Algorithm Essay

1) Write short notes on: a) Pains of Partition b) Family bonding and disintegration Ans. a) India was a colony for over 200 years and this struggle for independence is deeply rooted in the Indian psyche. More than this, another momentous event of partition is taken up by the authors. Heinous activity, cruelty, barbarism have left deep scars in Indian minds. Different aspects of partition have been dealt with by many writers specially who have themselves undergone that experience. His most famous book is â€Å"Train to Pakistan†. Another important book by him is â€Å"Ghadar 1915: India’s first Armed Revolution†. There are some women writers who have also written about the partition of 1947. Manju Kapur has, in fact, made it the background of her novel â€Å"Difficult Daughter† that was published in 1998. Nina Sibal painted a vivid picture of partition in her novel â€Å"Yatra† and â€Å"What the body remembers† by Shauna Baldwain also throws light on the pains of Partition. b) Among all the countries of the world, the institution of family is of supreme importance in India. Even in this post modern world, Family still plays the pivotal role. There have been continuous twists and turns in the cobweb of family relationship. Many writers have written profusely on it but basically women writers have dealt with an extra edge. Shashi Deshpandey, Kamala Markandeya, Nayantara Sahgal , to name a few. Earlier, India had joint family system but with rapid industrialization and to meet out the search of better opportunities of employment, the families gradually acquired the shape of nuclear ones. Urban migration started with the shifting of masses from rural to urban areas to meet out the challenges of earning living. Such issues also dealt with seriously by many writers in all the languages in India. Both the genres of short stories and novels take up ‘Family’ as an important issue and then the different equations between members of the family always make interesting plot for the stories. Relation between mother and son, husband and wife, brother and brother, brother and sister requires minute detailing and a lot of sensitivity. 2) Write a note on basket-selling girl. Ans. The writer is shown as eighteen years old and studying in the Delhi University. The girl , that he meets at Deoli station, is very poor as her feet were bare but he was struck by the sheer dignity with which she carried herself. She had a typical charm about her personality. She had a beautiful , pale visage with shiny, black hair. The feature of profound attraction was her pair of dark, troubled eyes. In a way the writer was mesmerized by the simple beauty and grace oozing out of her personality. â€Å"She stood by my window for some time and neither of us said anything. But when she moved on, I found myself leaving my seat and going to the carriage door. † The use of the words â€Å"I found myself† amply suggests that he was motivated from within to follow that girl. The germination of love in this story does not seem to be unrequited as the girl also gets sparkled up looking at the writer for the second time. In fact her maiden meeting with the writer instills a spark of happiness within her. He writes, â€Å" I watched her as the platform slipped away. She was alone on the platform and she did not move, but she was looking at me and smiling. I watched her until the signal-box in the way, and then the jungle hid the station, but I could still see her standing there alone †¦.. â€Å" 3. What are the unique features of Desai’s prose style ? Ans. Desai is part of a new literary tradition of Indian writing in English which dates back only to the ’30s or ’40s. She explains that this is because â€Å"at one time all literature was recited rather than read and that remains the tradition in India. It is still rather a strange act to buy a book and read it, an unusual thing to do†. Her new style of writing is also different from that of many Indian writers, as it is much less conservative than Indian literature has been in the past. For these reasons, she says, she is not widely read in India, mainly in Indian universities if at all. Throughout her novels, children’s books, and short stories, Desai focuses on personal struggles and problems of contemporary life that her Indian characters must cope with. She maintains that her primary goal is to discover â€Å"the truth that is nine-tenths of the iceberg that lies submerged beneath the one-tenth visible portion we call Reality†. She portrays the cultural and social changes that India has undergone as she focuses on the incredible power of family and society and the relationships between family members, paying close attention to the trials of women suppressed by Indian society. Desai is praised for her broad understanding on intellectual issues, and for her ability to portray her country so vividly with the way the eastern and western cultures have blended there. 4) Write the character sketch of Daga . Ans. Daga was a contractor who earned huge amount of money. As money begets money, he piled up bundles of notes by hook or by crook. He was involved in the quagmire of immoral deeds like murder, kidnapping, trafficking etc. He had an unsatiating appetite for money and he blew it up on women and alcohol. There was nothing congenial or friendly in Daga’s personality. He did not think twice before slashing anybody from his scheme of life but if someone tried to leave his gang, he would akin it an act of treacherous absconder. For example, there was a man Kannan who wanted to leave Daga’s world of heinous crime but no sooner than this news reached Daga’s ear, he was murdered. When Kailas extricated himself from the company of Daga, he could not take it casually. In spite of Kailas’ escaping to a far off place, in fact a continent away, he managed to find him. To Kailas’ utter discomfort, his greed of money is not quashed. He demanded fifty thousand rupees from him. Kailas tried his level best to make him understand that his current job did not flourish him with unlimited money but Daga was not ready to listen. He was violent enough to have forgotten that Kailas once used to work for him. He used harsh body language while dealing with Kailas. â€Å"If you run again, I will kill you, no matter which gutter you hide in. Tomorrow this time. Fifty thousand. † This threat sent the shivers down Kailas’ spine. He knew that Daga was a killer and that hunting lodge was an ideal place for his murder to be taken place without any news of it to anybody. Finally Daga meets his death as a murderer should die. 5) Write a note on suitability of the title â€Å" Panch Parmeshwar’ . Ans. The story ‘Panch Parmeshwar’ deals with the supremact of