My Favourite Poet!

When I looked up Poets.org, one name caught my eye. He is the author of my favourite poem. That's right, my favourite poet is Shel Silverstein.

Why? Because he is able to use all elements of the human feelings, like laughter, humour, sadness, grief, etc. to write his poems. Therefore, he has no fixed theme in his poems and the poems published today may be entirely different from that published the next day.

He is also amazing in the fact that he is able to understand and write humorous poems. Humorous poems are incredibly difficult to write( well, that is, for me). Based on the poems found in http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/ I found that the other authors had difficulties when writing the humorous poems and the final product would then have no humour factor at all. The fact that Shel Silverstein could write "Messy Room" was the testament that he was an accomplished poet.

He also compiled poems and put them into books. For example, "Runny Rabbit" was a poetry collection of spoonerisms that were completed before his death. Interestingly, he also illustrated his own books.

His three most popular poems are Where the Sidewalk Ends, A Light in the Attic and Falling Up.

Sadly, the poet passed away in May 1999.

My Favourite Poem!

Whosever room this is should be ashamed!
His underwear is hanging on the lamp.
His raincoat is there in the overstuffed chair,
And the chair is becoming quite mucky and damp.
His workbook is wedged in the window,
His sweater's been thrown on the floor.
His scarf and one ski are beneath the TV,
And his pants have been carelessly hung on the door.
His books are all jammed in the closet,
His vest has been left in the hall.
A lizard named Ed is asleep in his bed,
And his smelly old sock has been stuck to the wall.
Whosever room this is should be ashamed!
Donald or Robert or Willie or--
Huh? You say it's mine? Oh, dear,
I knew it looked familiar!

This is my favourite poem from http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/
This poem is entitled "Messy Room" by Shel Silverstein.
He names the lizard that lies on the bed "Ed", making it out to be a human being. He also uses a lot of adjectives to describe more about the messy state of the room. He also uses a quite adequate link of rhyming words at the end of each line, thus making the poem easier to read. He also uses a lot of humour in his poem.
The last four lines are a very good example of his humour. He says that whoever is the room's owner should be ashamed. However, he realises that the room is his and looks familiar. In the end, he has himself to be ashamed for because of his messy room! His criticism had backfired!

Diary entry of Hari after events in the text

Dear Diary,
Today is the first time I went to the bazaar to sell the eggs from the poultry farm in the backyard. Coincidentally, the de Silvas came back from Bombay today. The cook bought half of my eggs. At the bazaar, I sold the eggs in less than an hour, at a very good profit, too! I walked home happily after that to show Lila the money I made. Lila was very happy with me. Mother then told me to get some coconuts to sell to the de Silvas.I got 6 coconuts from the coconut trees. However, the cook wasn't impressed with the coconuts. Just then, Mr de Silva came out and said he wanted to buy them. He gave me a 10 rupee note and told me to keep it! I actually made 8 rupees more than what I usually got from 6 coconuts!
That night, Father praised me for my hard work. This is the best day of my life!
Good Night,
Hari.

The book that made an impact on my parents' lives

The book that made an impact on my parents' lives is "Thick face, Black Heart" by Chin-Ning Chu. The title may sound a bit illegal and very suggestive, but it is not a book teaching you to kill people or not care about anything.
Well, this book teaches you how you should make sacrifices that are needed for the greater good and how to not care about others' opinion of you.
I have read the book, and, in essence, black heart talks about being able to make sacrifices and take risks without brooding about the risks or sacrifices. Thick face means that you don't care about what opinions others have of you.
How did my parents apply it? Well, it was actually their friend who applied it. They told their friend of the book and started elaborating on it. Before that, their friend was a chronic loser in the stock market. He just couldn't bear to get less profits and always held onto the stocks until they dropped out of the bottom because that was what he learnt in school--buy at the lowest point, sell at the highest point. Then, he applied Thick face, Black heart and started to care less about the profits he made, as ong as he earned money. He is now a brilliant investor and has made so much money that he could retire almost 5 years prematurely.
My parents recently also started to invest. However, they didn't invest in the stock market as they thought it was very dangerous. I'm not sure what they invested in, but they surely had more "pocket money" now!
"Thick face, Black Heart" thus made an impact on my parents' lives by teaching them what would never be thought in school.

My Favourite Part of Village by the Sea

Well, for this topic, I had no dilemma. My favourite part of the story would be its end. It is, as expected because it is my favourite part of the story, a happy ending. Well, Hari's mother is cured of her anaemia, his father is not the least drunk anymore, Hari has money enough to support the family. They can afford Bela and Kamal's books now because Hari has money. They finally have plans for the future--they want to become the owners of Thul's first poultry farm.
There is very much less stress, and I believe that the family will finally lead a "happily ever after" life because, first of all, Hari's mother is cured. After she is cured, there is much less burden on the family and the is on more breadwinner.
Secondly, Hari's father has kicked his drinking habit and I personally don't think that he will go back to that habit because of the events that happened throughout the whole course of the text. Because of his drinking habit, the whole family led a hard life. Therefore, as a father, I don't think he would want to go back to the drinking habit that caused that period of hardship for the family.
Because of these reasons, the family has less burdens and therefore they will lead a happy life thereafter. Hence, the ending of the text was my favourite part of Anita Desai's Village by the Sea.

I rather be the city rat than the country rat.

City rat? Or country rat? When I first thought of this, I immediately thought that, of course, being a city rat was better. After all, I'm a "city rat". But, after careful observation, I summarised the different advantages and disadvantages in being the city or country rat.
City rat~ In the city, technology is more advanced, and getting from place to place is much easier as there are many more forms of transport than in the country. Also, there are many more forms of entertainment in the city. There are better job prospects in the city whereas the country has a limited amount of jobs. However, it is really very busy everyday in the city and many things have to be done. There is little time to really enjoy life as it is as you are so busy everyday. You must constantly improve yourself to keep up with the always-improving and very competitive community, therefore leaving very little time to your family.
Country Rat~There is a lot of leisure time in life as a country rat. You have a stable job, as long as your health does not deteriorate. There is no time spent in trying ever so hard to improve yourself and therefore, a lot of time is spent with family, thus strengthening family and relationship bonds. However, there is little variety of entertainment. Since there is a lot of time, many games are invented, but only if you have the inspiration. Technology is not very advanced-- the most commonly used form of transport is by foot or bicycles. Cars are useless as petrol kiosks are miles away, driving your car to and fro will only result in your tank of fuel becoming empty again.

So! These are the summaries of the city and country rats respectively. Not, very short, but at least you get the idea, right. After a very long period of thinking (4 days from the previous post), I finally made up my mind. If given the choice, I would choose to be the city rat.
Why? Because nature always changes, being in the city enables me to be able to realise change in the fact that everybody must improve and change to keep up. Although I have little time for my family, cherishing the short moments that the family have should be all that is needed to strengthen the family bonds. I also like being busy, it takes my mind off the everyday difficulties.

What about you? Which would you be? City rat? Or country rat? Please comment.

Is progress necesarily beneficial for the society?

For this topic, my vote would be change is usually beneficial, but sometimes there are a few adverse effects.. It is, at the same time, necessary and beneficial for the society, yet, sometimes, wrong changes are made at the wrong time and everything falls into pieces.
For example, in Village by the Sea, the building of Biju's boat was the first sign of change in the text, which was necessary in giving jobs to the increasing amount of people in the village and providing more money for the village. This is a good change, which usually happens more in the society.
However, there is also another example in the Village by the Sea text that has adverse effect on the family. Actually, it is a blessing in disguise, I would say. When Hari runs off to Bombay, the family's sole breadwinner is gone and the family is plunged into even more hardship. But, it is a blessing in disguise as the de Silvas finally know of their plight and their mother can be finally sent to the hospital to get proper treatment. However, the period of time in between both events were, I would say, the hardest for the family in the text.
There are many other signs of changes in the book, like the building of factories, and the status of Hari's family's financial status. However, the root of the event is always the most significant, that's why I chose the building of Biju's boat which signalled a change in the lives of the village folk on the whole and Hari's mother having proper treatment which signalled the start of a better life for the family as there was lesser burden on the family.

Favourite Character in Village by the Sea

So..... The title says it all. Its what I want to discuss today. Hmmm.... For every book that I have read, I always have a definite favourite character, but I encountered a kind of dilemma after reading this book. Who to "vote" to be my favourite character? After much consideration, I shortlisted these 2 people.
Mr Panwallah~ He is caring and generous and is the first friend that Hari made when he first went to Bombay(Jagu doesn't count, Hari takes Jagu as his employer and not really a friend, watchman at Seabird also applies). He is the very character who voices out the need for change, an important theme in the book.
Mr de Silva~One of the main benefactors in the story, he helps Hari's family out of their situation indirectly by enabling them a salary every time he comes to Thul.
Who would I choose?
Well, actually, my opinion was that it was mainly Hari's salary in Bombay that helped the family out of their miserable situation. However, I thought Mr de Silva would also make it as my favourite character as Hari's mother was cured and would not prove as a burden for the family.
But, in the end, I finally came up with a decision. Hari could always go back to Bombay to work under Mr Panwallah(his wages are higher than with Jagu) and eventually come up with the money to cure his mother. Mr de Silva coming along to help Hari's mother get medecine was just a coincidence that their family could do without.
Verdict:
Mr Panwallah is my favourite character as he helped the family the most by helping Hari to earn money and support the family. Most importantly, he taught Hari that change was neccesary in any kind of community and also taught him to work independently. Hari could then make money in his village by selling chickens and more money when the working colony for the factories came and he could put his watchmending skills to good use.