WHAT IS LOVE?
Love is such a powerful force that makes even the most ordinary person capable of doing extraordinary things.
The power of love is held within each of us every moment. This wondrous energy is available merely by our use and conscious recognition. When we choose to love one another we transcend the lower personality perceptions and rise to a higher truth. We recognize our oneness, wholeness and interconnectedness.
We love our parents, friends, siblings, teachers, our society, our country. Every action of the person is drive by the force of love. When we paint a picture, when we play a musical instrument, when we plant a tree, when we clean our home, we express the love in our heart through various forms.
സ്നേഹമാണ് അഖില സാരമൂഴിയില്'
1. What do you see in the picture?
Answer: A number of people holding hands around the world, two white doves flying in opposite directions.
2. How are the people seen?
Answer: A number of people holding hands standing around the world forming a human chain.
It symbolises love, trust, and unity.
3. What do the doves signify?
Answer: Love and peace
4. What idea does the picture convey?
Answer: The whole picture conveys the idea that we together must work for world peace.
"Only Love can save the World"
"United We Stand, Divided We Fall. Love is the Force that unites us All"
Lets Watch the Song
We Are The World - composed by Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie
"We Are the World" is a charity single originally recorded by the supergroup USA for Africa in 1985. It was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie and produced by Quincy Jones and Michael Omartian for the album We Are the World. With sales in excess of 20 million copies, it is the eighth best-selling physical single of all time.
Source - Wikipedia
---------------------------------------------------
MATERNITY by Lilika Nakos
‘Maternity’, written by Lilika Nakos presents an insight into the strengths and weaknesses of human nature. The teenage boy, Mikali, in ‘Maternity’ stands for courage and determination, who tries at any cost to save his infant brother. It throws light on the misery and sufferings of children and women afflicted by war.
About the Author
LILIKA NAKOS
Lilika Nakos (1903-1989) was a Greek novelist, journalist and short story writer. She was one of the first women writers of modern Greek prose and for many years the only woman in Greek journalism. She is best remembered for her story collection titled Children's Inferno: Stories of the Great Famine in Greece. One of her best known novels is Lost Soul.
Short Summary
The fourteen-year-old boy, Mikali, an Armenian orphan refugee in ‘Maternity’ stands for courage and determination, who tries at any cost to save his infant brother. He was one of the refugees in a camp in Marseilles, France. He had fled from his native land of Armenia. His mother has died while giving birth to his younger brother. While everyone managed to find a work and live better, Mikali alone could not. He had his baby brother to look after. He bore the infant on his back and wandered around the camp. The baby screamed of hunger and this disturbed the other refugees. So everyone chased him away.
Mikali himself was dazed by those cries; his head was empty and he wandered about like a lost soul, dying from lack of sleep and weariness, always dragging about with him the deafening burden that had been born for his misfortune. People of the refugee camp wished the baby should die.
One day, unable to bear it further, Mikali went to the other side of the place where the Anatolians were:
they also had fled from the Turkish massacres in Asia Minor. Mikali had been told that there was a nursing mother there who might take pity on his baby. So there he went there full of hope but he found the same misery there. "Have pity on this poor orphan and give him a little milk. I am a poor Armenian .", he said in Greek. Yet no one was ready to give the baby breast milk because the head of the baby had become enormous and the body had become thin.
Finally, he met a Chinaman, who was very sympathetic. He took Mikali to his home and asked his wife to feed the baby. The Chinaman's wife fed the baby lovingly. Thus the baby was saved. The Chinaman's wife is portrayed as an ideal mother who symbolizes culture, warmth and humanness. The Chinaman retains his sense of humanity, whilst selfishness prevails amongst the women.
The story emphasises the terrifying experience of racism that makes people inhumane. It also illuminates the noble message of the need to possess humanitarian values.
Reading Section - It was more than a month since they were at Marseilles.......... uninterrupted howls which kept them awake at night. (para 1-3)
Scaffolding Questions
1. How did the Armenian refugees settle?
Answer: They had settled down in any way they could: the richest under tents; the others in the ruined sheds; but the majority of the refugees, having found nothing better, were sheltered under carpets held up at the four corners by sticks.
2. Describe the life of the refugees in the camp.
Answer: The living conditions of the refugee were so bad that they considered themselves lucky if they could find a sheet to hang up at the sides and wall them from peering eyes.
3. Why couldn't Mikali earn even a penny?
Answer: Mikali couldn't go to work because he bore on his back the burden of a newborn baby.
4. Why was he chased away by his fellow Armenians?
Answer: Because they were unable to bear the uninterrupted howls which kept them awake at night.
Activity 2
"...the majority of the refugees, having found nothing better, were sheltered under carpets held up at the four corners by sticks." "Mikali ate the stale bread which his neighbours cared to offer and it
weighed on him."
You have understood the sufferings of the people in the refugee camp. If a disaster (flood, cyclone, earthquake, etc.) strikes your neighbouring village, what action plan will you prepare for immediate relief?
Possible answers
1. Flood
2. Drought
3. Contagious diseases, famine, poverty, stress and psychological trauma, damage, death, destruction, etc. Buildings should withstand calamities, enhance the capacity for early warnings, conduct awareness and training
4. programmes for preparedness, etc.
-------------------------------
First Bell 2.0 Online Class 14 - 6 August 2021Recap - About the fourteen-year-old boy, Mikali, and his miserable life.
Reading Section - Mikali himself was dazed by these cries; his head................ Enough to drive one mad! (para4-5)
1. Mikali is compared to a lost soul. Why?
Answer: Because he wandered about carrying on his back a deafening burden of a new babe. He neither got help nor protection from any source. He felt he was dying from sleep and weariness.
2. Why did the people in the refugee camp wished the baby should die?
Answer: All of them were already leading a miserable life. The baby screamed of hunger and this disturbed others. So they wished that the baby should die.
3. How was the attitude of the women in the Armenian camp?
Answer: No one came forward to help and care the child.
Reading Section - One day, unable to bear it further, Mikali went to the other side of the place ................. an infant blissfully sucking the maternal breast, its eyes half-closed. (para 6-10)
1. What made Mikali go to the other camp of the Anatolians?
Answer: Mikali had been told that there was a nursing mother there who might take pity on his baby.
2. "Have pity on this poor orphan and give him a little milk. I am a poor Armenian"
What type of sentence is this? How does it begin?
Answer: It begins with an auxiliary. Sentences that begin with an auxiliary verb or a root verb suggest warning, order, advice, command, request, surprise, suggestion, order, prayer, wish. They are called imperative sentences.
Language Activities - Activity 1 (page 50,51)
IMPERATIVE SENTENCES ARE USED IN POSTERS ISSUED IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST
Assignment : You are one of the volunteers who do service in a flood relief camp.
Prepare a few posters to create awareness among the inmates of the camp on health and hygiene to fight against epidemics.
-------------------------------------
First Bell 2.0 Online Class 15 - 12 August 2021
Reading section - At his appeal, a lovely, dark woman appeared,. She held in her arms an infant blissfully sucking the maternal breast, its eyes half-closed......... His eyes filled with tears, he went off, bearing the little child still wailing in its hunger.
Scaffolding Questions
1. Why was Mikali happy?
Answer: Mikali thought that he would get some help from the lovely dark woman who appeared with a baby. so he was happy.
2. What does the phrase ' give vent to' mean?
Answer: expressing strong emotions in an open way.
3. Which expression is expressed here?
Answer: cries of horror
Activity - Conduct a role play
Reading section - There was nothing to be done; the child was condemned to die of hunger.......... Often they mocked him because of his colour and his squint eyes.
4. Why did Mikali feel immensely alone and lost?
Answer: It was very difficult for Mikali to get food and shelter. He was turned away mercilessly whenever he went. He could do nothing to help the baby which kept on wailing due to hunger. so he felt immensely alone and lost.
5. 'chill ran up his spine' what does this phrase mean?
Answer: Used to say that someone feels very thrilled, frightened.
6. He slumped down in the shadow of a shed. What does the word 'Slump down' mean?
Answer: To droop, fall, or collapse physically downward.
7. Why did he sob desperately?
Answer: He would have to go sneaking about the streets, around cafe terraces, filching some half-eaten roll left on a plate; or else, rake about in the garbage for what a dog would not have eaten. Life seemed to him full of horrors. so he sobbed desperately.
Mikali was chased away from everywhere. But the chinaman who is hated by all for his strange looks came to help Mikali.
Assignment
1. How did the child become a problem to Mikali and the others in the refugee camp? What impression do you get about Mikali from the way he faced the problem?
2. Describe Mikail's experiences in the Armenian camp and the Anatolian camp. What difference do you notice?
------------------------------------------
First Bell 2.0 Online Class 16 - 18 August 2021Answers -
1. Mikali had to carry the new born on the back always. He could no go to work. the pathetic cries of the baby disturbed the refugees in the camp. the cries at times kept the people awake at night. without proper food, sleep and shelter, Mikali wandered about like a lost soul. In spite of all the miseries, he tried his best to save the infant. his patience, courage, love, and sense of responsibility are heoric in nature.
2. Mikali did not get any help from the Armenian camp. they often chased him away from their quarters. He got the same treatment from the Anatolians. When the women saw the baby they chased him away threatening him.
Reading section - Mikali saw that he was looking gently down at him and moving his lips as though to speak .................... the Chinaman said to him: "Come in, then; do not be afraid. This is my wife."
1. Who are Orientals?
Answer: Orientals means coming from or associated with eastern Asia, especially China and Japan.
2. What does stumble mean?
Answer: Trip or momentarily lose one's balance; almost fall.
3. Describe how the Chinaman's wife behaved when she saw Mikali with her husband.
Answer: When the chinaman's wife saw Mikali with her husband, her face reddened and with smile and utmost courtesy she welcomed them.
Reading section - Mikali went into the room, rather large it seemed, separated in the middle by a coloured paper screen. ..................................... Then, with a gesture of modesty she brought forward a flap of her robe over the milk-swollen breast and the poor, gluttonous infant suckling there.
Assignment
Mikali is a fourteen-year-old boy in the Armenian refugee camp at Marseilles. He was wandering about bearing the deafening burden of an infant, his brother. Their mother died giving birth to this baby and there was no one to take care of them. The refugees: both Armenians and Anatolians chased him away because of the baby. Even though he was dazed by the cries of the baby and tired to death by hunger and sleeplessness, he didn't try to escape by abandoning it. He tries to save the baby till the end and finally succeeds to save it with the help of the chinaman and his wife. Mikali is the epitome of brotherly love. He symbolizes persistence and dutifulness.
Activity 2 a. Read the following sentences.
He told her to sit on a straw mat.
What do you think were the actual words of the Chinaman? Complete the following.
The Chinaman said, "..........................................................................."
What changes do you notice when someone's actual words are reported?
Discuss and say whether the following statements are true or false.
When the exact words of the speaker are used, they are in the Direct Speech. When they are reported, they are in the Indirect Speech (Reported Speech).
b. Look at the picture and report what the teacher tells the students. ( textual activity)
1. Venu, open your textbook and turn to page no. 18.
What did the teacher ask Venu?
Answer; the teacher asked Venu to open his textbook and turn to page no. 18
2. Suman, stand up straight.
The teacher ordered Suman to stand up straight.
3. Mikali said, "I cannot go for work".
Answer: Mikali said that he could not go for work.
_______________________________________
For Reported Speech Rules and examples, and Exercises - Go to the Grammar section of this blog.
0 Comments