THE LAST LESSON

The story is narrated by a French boy, Franz. He is lazy but sensitive

and likes to play. He dislikes studying French and hates his teacher M.
Hamel.
After overpowering their districts of Alsace and Lorraine in France,
Berlin has ordered that German language instead of French be taught in
the schools there.
It is the last day of their French teacher M. Hamel, who has been there
for forty years. He is full of grief, nostalgia and patriotism. As a mark
of respect to his hard work, the village men also attend his ‘last lesson’.
They are sad as they did not learn their mother tongue, French in their
childhood.
Franz is shocked to know that it’s his last lesson, as he does not know
French. Now, suddenly, he gets interested in learning it and understands
everything taught on that day!
He develops an instant liking for the teacher, M. Hamel and respects
him for his sincerity and hard work.
He feels sad at departing from him and is ashamed for not being able to
recite the lesson of participles.
M. Hamel tells them that they all are at fault for not being eager enough
to learn, putting it off to the next day. He blames himself for not
teaching them sincerely.
His patriotism is reflected in his praise for the French language as being
the most beautiful and most logical language in the world. He tells the
class to guard their language as being close to one’s language is the key
to escape from the prison of slavery. It will help them in getting free
from the Germans.
They realize the importance of learning their mother tongue and that
they have been defeated by the Germans because of their illiteracy.
Franz feels that it is not possible to take away one’s language from a
person as it is natural to each being, may it be the “coo” to the pigeons
or “French” to the Frenchmen.
LOST SPRING
Summary of the Lesson “the Lost Spring – Stories of stolen Childhood”
– The author tells us stories of her interactions with children from
deprived backgrounds. She describes their poor condition and life in an
interesting manner. The story touches the reader and is thought-
provoking.
The author described two of her encounters with children from deprived
backgrounds. Through them she wants to highlight the plight of street
children forced into labour early in life and are denied the opportunity
of schooling. Also, she brings out the callousness of society and the
political class towards the sufferings of the poor. The first encounter is
with a rag picker boy named Saheb – E – Alam who migrated from
Bangladesh in 1971 and lives in Seemapuri in Delhi. These ragpicker
children look for ‘valuables’ in the garbage – things like a coin or torn
shoes which are as precious as ‘gold’ for them.
They could hardly manage some food for themselves, other things like
identity, education, shoes and sports are their unfulfilled dreams. Their
parents scrounged the garbage searching for things that helped them
survive – afford food, clothing and shelter for the family. The children
hunted through the garbage heaps looking for things which could
partially fulfil their unfulfilled dreams.
One day the writer saw the boy, holding a steel can, going towards the
milk booth. He had got a job at a tea stall. He was happy that he would
get eight hundred rupees and all the meals. The writer noticed that
Saheb had lost the freedom of being his own master which he had
enjoyed as a rag picker.
The second boy was Mukesh who belonged to a family of bangle
makers in Firozabad. The boy had a dream of becoming a car mechanic.
On the contrary, his family was traditionally engaged in bangle making,
although the profession harmed them physically and they hardly earned
any money out of it.
Still, no one dared to dream of doing something else due to the fear of
the police and the middlemen. The family elders were content that other
than teaching the art of bangle–making to their children, they had been
able to build them a house to live in. The boy wanted to be a car
mechanic. Cars were all that Mukesh had seen on the roads of his town
and so, he could not dream any further.
My mother at sixty six
This is a touching poem written by Indian poet Kamla Das who wrote
under the pen name of ‘Madhavikutty’. In this poem, she describes her
feeling of love and attachment towards her ageing mother.
Once the poet went to visit her mother. She was on her way back to the
the airport to return to Cochin. She looked at her mother who was
seated beside her in the car. Her mother had dozed off to sleep and her
ageing face – was smoky in colour like ash. Her mouth was open and
she resembled a dead body. The poet realized that her mother was old.
She felt pain and sympathy for her. Her mother needed love, affection
and care.
In order to come out of the gloom, the poet shifted her glance and
looked out of the car’s window. There she saw young trees pass by.
Little children were running out of their houses into the playgrounds.
These things were contrary to the ageing face of her mother. They
symbolised energy, life and happiness.
As they reached the airport and the poet was about to leave for the
aeroplane, she glanced at her mother one more time. Her mother
appeared weak and pale just like the moon in the winter season which
seems to have lost all its strength. The poet felt the pain and fear of
losing her mother. She was reminded of her childhood when she used to
fear losing her mother. As a child she could not bear to be separated
from her mother even for a few moments. Now the loss would be
permanent as her mother was about to die and she would lose her
forever.
The poet did not express her feelings. She smiled and said “see you
soon, Amma” because she wanted that her mother should live and they
could meet again.
KEEPING QUIET
“Keeping Quiet” is a peace poem written by the Chilean poet Pablo
Neruda. The poet asks humanity to count numbers from one to twelve –
twelve being the number of hours shown in a clock or the number of
zodiac signs. He requests everyone not to speak because languages
create barriers between people. The moment when everyone stops
moving their body will be very special and different as we have never
experienced such a moment before.
The poet says that in this period of inactivity the fishermen would not
harm the whales, the salt gatherers will not hurt their hands, those who
are busy destroying the nature will adopt a new approach towards life,
The men who are preparing for wars and victory based on deaths of
innocent people will join their enemy and stand in unity with them,
doing nothing. No one will harm himself or any other person. Everyone
will unite and ponder upon his acts and realize the results of his deeds.
The poet clarifies his idea and says further that he does not want that
people should stand idle. He wants that there should be no war because
he does not want to see trucks laden with dead bodies of the soldiers.
He is promoting Universal brotherhood and peace.
The poet says that everyone is working continuously, to achieve one’s
goals. People are threatened by death and the fear forces them to work
endlessly so that they can achieve everything quickly. In this mad rush,
they do not realize the repurcutions of their acts. He wants us to pause
and come out of the mad rush. He wants us to be happy about our
achivements and celebrate them. He wants us to overcome the fear of
death and to relax for a while. We should know the results of our deeds
and celebrate our achievements
When the people will remain quiet for a while, they will realize the
purpose of their lives. Just like all the creations of nature undergo a
rebirth with the change of seasons, similary, keeping quiet will be a
rebirth for the human soul. It will give a new meaning to our life.
Again, the poet says that he will count till twelve and asks everyone to
remain quiet while he leaves.
THE THIRD LEVEL
The story revolves around a 31 year old man named Charley,
who experienced something weird. One day after work
coming from the Subway, he reached the third level of the
Grand Central station (which doesn’t actually exist). He
reminisces the entire experience with his psychiatrist friend
Sam. Charley thought he experienced time travel and had
reached somewhere in the eighteen-nineties, a time before
the world saw two of its most deadliest wars. As soon as he
realised what time he is in, he immediately decided to buy
two tickets to Galesburg, Illinois; one for himself and the other
for his wife. Unfortunately, the currency used in that century
was different. Thus, the next day he withdrew all his savings
and got them converted even if it meant bearing losses. He
went looking for the third level but failed to find it. It worried
his wife and the psychiatrist Sam who told him that he is
hallucinating in order to take refuge from reality and miseries
of the modern world which is full of worry. Charley thus
resorts to his stamp collection in order to distract himself
when suddenly one day he finds a letter from his friend Sam
who had gone missing recently. Sam wrote that he always
wanted to believe in the idea of third level and now that he is
there himself, he encourages Charley and Louisa to never
stop looking for it.
TIGER KING
This story refers to the Maharaja Sir Jilani Hung
Bahadur of Pratibandapuram. Astrologers predict his
future when he was just 10 days old. Astrologers say
that a tiger will kill him. On this, surprisingly the 10-day
old prince said: “Let tigers beware!” The boy grows up
just like any other royal child raised. Such as by
drinking the milk of white cow and looked after by
English nanny and watching English movies.

When he was 20, he was crowned king and came to

know about the prediction about his death. So, then
onwards he started killing a tiger and put a ban on the
tiger hunt in his state. According to the astrologers he
needs to be careful with the 100th tiger even if he
successfully kills 99 tigers.
One time a high ranking British officer visits his state
and wants to go for a tiger hunt. However, the maharaja
declined his wish. And in order to secure the state from
the wrath of the British officer. The maharaja sent 50
diamond rings to the officer’s wife whose worth was Rs
3 lakh.

Within ten years the maharaja successful slays 70 tigers.

But after that, there were no tigers left in
Pratibandapuram. Hence, to complete his target of
killing a hundred tigers he marries a girl from the royal
state that has more tigers so that he can complete his
target. Whenever he visits his in-laws, he makes sure
that he kills 5-6 tiger each time. In addition, in this way,
he was able to kill 99 tigers but he was unable to find
the 100th tiger. On not finding the 100th tiger the
maharaja became violent and threatened the Dewan. In
order to save himself from the fury of the king, the
Dewan got an old tiger from the circus and with great
difficulty put him in the forest.

He told Maharaja about the tiger. So, maharaja went on

a hunt and shot the tiger and felt victorious and happy.
But then again, he didn’t know that his bullet miss and
the tiger was alive and he only collapsed out of fear. No
one has the guts, to tell the truth to the king so they
killed the tiger and brought it in a grand procession.

Lastly, the maharaja was joyful and happy. So, on his

son’s birthday, he buys a wooden tiger as a gift for him.
The tiger had rough edges and while playing with it he
gets a woodcut in his hand which later on advances into
an infection. And because of it, he dies. Therefore,
fatefully the 100th tiger although made of wood take its
revenge and killed the king.