PALAMURU UNIVERSITY

English Semester II Material

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1. Hope is the Thing with Feathers
-Emily Dickinson
About the Author:

Emily Dickenson, born in Amherst, Massachusetts, was an American poet. She lived much of
her life highly introverted. While Dickenson was a private poet, fewer than a dozen during her life
time was usually uttered significantly by publishers to make it fit the conventional poetic rules of the
time. Dickenson’s poems are unique for the era in which she produced time. They contained short
lines typically lacked titles and often used slant rhyme as well as capitalisation and punctuation. Her
works are: "Because I could not stop for Death", “I’m Nobody! Who are you? "

About the poem:

The speaker defines "Hope" as a feathered creature that resides inside the human soul. This
feathery thing sings a wordless (silent) tune, not stopping under any conditions. It's tune sweet and
best when heard in violent winds. To the song the gale adds sound to run and spread sweetly to
lighten the sorrow hearts. Only an extremely severe storm could stop this bird from singing. The
human life has so many ups and downs. The soul goes under much stress in the time it dwells. It
silence when it has hurt. The "Hope" bird has made many people feel warm.

The Speaker has heard the bird's singing in the coldest places, and on the strangest seas. But
in the speaker's life, even the most extreme one's, the bird has never asked for anything in return.
Everything in life comes with a price, except hope. It comes from within. Hope strengthens one
against all extremities of life and acts as a silent star.

2. Subha
-Rabindranath Tagore
About the Author:

Rabindranath Tagore was a Bengali sage who worked as a poet, writer, playwright,
composer, philosopher, social activist and painter. He reshaped Bengali literature and music as well
as Indian art with contextual modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Author of the
"profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful" poetry of Gitanjali. He became in 1913 the first non-
European and the first lyricist to win the Nobel Prize in literature. He was the fellow of the Royal
Asiatic Society. He was referred to as "the Bard of Bengal."
Story:

Banikanta's family lives in chandipur village in Bengal. He has three daughters namely
Sukheshini, Suhasini and Subhashini. He named for the sake of uniformity. Subhashini Called "Subha"
for short.

Subha's elder sisters married off. She only laid like a silent weight upon her parents.
Subhasini born with the deformity, dumb. She can't speak but can understand the emotions. She
understood herself that God had sent her like a curse to her father. Her parents heart aches day and
night on her account. Her father loves her a lot but her mother regarded as a stain upon her own
body.

Sabha lacked in speech but she is beautiful girl with large dark eyes. Her lips tremble like a
leaf to respond for thoughts. We have a medium to express our feelings but she lacks in, fall in error
sometimes. She learnt language of the eye endless in expression, deep as the sea, clear as heaven.
No one played with her. Nature is her companion. The hamlet where she lives has a river. She spent
her lonely time with river, and its bankside. The nature murmurs and movement of nature were the
dumb girl's language. She sat beneath the tree shadows at bank of the river and enjoyed herself.

Subha has no friend but in the stall, two cows, Sarbbashi and Panguli are her best friends
because they also have no language like Subha. She played with them all the time. Besides two there
were goats and a kitten. She has an attachment with them. They comforted in her lap. Subha has a
human friend called Pratap who managed to waste a lot time in fishing. He called her "Su". He took
her with him to the river side sat beneath the tamarind trees and played all the day in the nature.

Gradually Subha grew up began to find herself, question herself but no answer from her. Her
heart was heavy, could not speak. Her parents planned for her marriage. Banikanta told that they
should go to Calcutta. Subha's heart was heavy with tears. She bid her friends, cows, goats, kitten
and Pratap. Pratap said that her parents brought her bridegroom, so you are going to be married!
Mind you don’t forget me. Banikanta was smoking in his bedroom; Subha dropped down at his feet
and burst out weeping as she gazed towards him. He tried to comfort her.

In Calcutta, Subha's mother dressed her up with great care, knotted hair hung ornaments.
The bridegroom came scanned her in detain and said not so bad. Having delivered their dumb girl
into another's hands, her parents returned home. Less than in ten days everyone knew that the
bride was a dumb ! Who understood a dumb girl's language? She wept silently and endlessly.

3. India's message to the world

-Swami Vivekananda
About the Author:

Swami Vivekananda is one of the greatest philosophers of India. His teaching and saying are
followed all over the world. Swamiji is recognized as a global ideal legend. His thoughts and ideas
are a way of new hopes for the entire humanity. The present lesson talks about his syllabus of 42
points to work. But it was remained unfinished. The present essay is taken from the volume 4 of the
complete works of Vivekananda; it talks about Nanda’s love and adoration for India. He admits that
he was apprehensive of the state of the country. After travelling to the west, he developed a new
found appreciation.
About the Essay:

Nanda is bold to message on India's spiritual embodiment to the west and bolder to the
countrymen. India is the land of many cultures, customs and institutions and multiple races are
dwelling here. He is a fortunate to study amidst of the various races. Good and evil are everywhere.
The glorious soul knows to speak in its own language. Men and women are found every race whose
lives are blessings to humanity. He gives an instance of Emperor Ashoka.

Nanda is grateful to who received him with the warm hearts in the west. But his life's
faithfulness is to his motherland. His life is dedicated to his countrymen's service and for his friends.
He owes to this land for equipping him with ability to overcome from weakness and failure even
from his every birth.

India is a sacred land for itself purest sons, it raises, animal to the divine through the
centuries, and trained man to throw off the garment of brutality and made them spiritual immortal.
This is the deathless and birth less it filled with misery more than the pleasure. This land is land of
humanity. Here, men and women are free to achieve their goals. This land is great problems of life
and death where the religion was practical. The human heart expanded not only the men, but also
birds, beasts, plants and sand. Highest and lowest of all find a place in the heart of the man.

We all hear the degradation of India. Nanda also believed, but today he is standing with
cleared eyes from obstructive predictions. Above all, India never degrades she witnessed the power
of several hands for several centuries. And flare up with added brilliance. She is walking with her
own majestic steps to fulfill her glorious destiny.

We threw the challenges to the world during the days of Upanishads. Race after race
received the challenges to solve the world's questions of peace or war patients or forbearance,
goodness or wickedness and worldliness or spirituality. We solved this for ages ago, its India's
backbone of her existence. She never deviated whether Tartar ruled or Turks, whether the Mughals
ruled or the English. Every educated knows that the mas of spiritual Influence immediately flooded
the world from here.

The influence of a little island brought India to contact the rest of the world. The millions of
civilised lands are waiting for the message that saves them from the attraction of materialism, the
modern money worship in driving them towards inhumanity. He finishes his work by saying the
nation's life turns glorious when people know the spirituality and elements which the nation is
composed.

Reading: The Forest Man of India

The Summary:

About Author:

Jadav Payeng was born in 1963 in the state of Assam. He was honoured as The Forest Man
of India for his love towards environment with his effort. He created 500 hectors dense forest. He
won the Padma Sri Award in 2005.

About lesson:

Majuli island is located on the river Brahmaputra in the district of Jorhat, Assam. In 1979,
when Jadav Payeng was 16 years old, he saw huge number of snakes died in the barren treeless
Sandbar. Majuli is shrinking fast because of floods and erosion. These two situation changed life.
 Jadav Payeng took the mission of planting trees. He planted trees for a 30 years. He changed
the sandbar into a dense green forest.

Nobody knew of his effort. The Authorities came to Know about the forest in 2008 when
they were in search of group of elephants which are destroying the fields. It was 500 hectors dense
forest. They were shocked to see that it was an effort of a single man. It was named Molai forest
after Payeng’s nickname. When the villagers wanted to cut down the forest to hunt the elephants,
he asked to kill him first before killing the animals.

He opines that Man is the might bigger danger to the forest. He advises that planting of
trees should become part of school curriculum. He was a simple man with simple logic- Love nature,
nature will reciprocate. He is an inspiration for everyone.

Conclusion:

A truly inspiring personality, Jadav Payeng has inspired many to save trees as plant new
trees. His message is simple and clear “Save trees Save lives Save our Planet."

We can learnt from the story of Jadav Molai Payeng the positive attitude environment, hard
work with patience and a single person with determination can do wondered. If our Intension is
good, then the whole existence comes to our aim!

** Save trees - Save life **

Reading: Of Sophia and Chitti

The Summary:

Sophia is a social human maid Robot develops by the Hong-Kong based company. Honson
Robert Sophia was activated on February 14, 2016 and made its first public appearance in mid-
march 2016 of South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, United States. Sophia is marketed as a Social
Robot that can mimic social behavior and induces feelings of love in humans.

Sophia has been covered by media around the globe and has participated in many high
profile interviews. In October 2017, Sophia was grankel Saudi Arabian citizenship becoming the first
robot to receive legal personhood in any country in November 2017; Sophia was named the United
Nation States.

According to founder David Hosnson, Sophia source code is about 70% open source a paper
describing of one of Sophia’s open source system called "open forms" submitted to 36th Conference
on neural processing systems (Neutral P s 2023)

Three laws of Robotics:

Three laws of Robotics rules developed by Science fiction writer ISSAC- Asimov, who sought
a creation on ethical system for human and robots. The law first appeared in his short story Runa
Dupind (1992) and subsequently become hugely influential in the Sci-fi- genre. In addition they later
found relevance in discussions innovating Technology, including Robotics and AI.

The three laws are follows:

First law:

A robot may injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
Second law:

A Robot must obey the orders given it by human being except where such orders would conflict of
the First Law.

Third Law:

A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First and
Second Law.

Conclusion:

Robots are useful in many ways. For instance a robot boosts economy because business
needs to be efficient to keep up with Industry competition. Therefore having robots helps business
owner to be competitions because robots can do better job than human scan.

Eg: Robot can built assemble a Car

Reading: Hazards of Food Colouring

If two different coloured candies were placed before you, one red and one yellow, and you
are asked to identify which was the strawberry flavoured one from the lemon flavoured one, which
one would you choose?

Naturally, like everyone else, you would gravitate towards the red candy being strawberry-
flavoured and the yellow candy being lemon-flavoured despite the fact that they both taste the
same. This is so because we are familiar with the colour of the fruits and that is our point of
reference. However, are you aware that neither the red nor yellow colour of the candy is actually
their natural colour. Those colours, red and the yellow, are simply added to make them more
desirable to the different people who relish those tastes. Neither of the colours come from the
actual fruit, but in fact the colour is made from petroleum.

Food colouring is any sort of dye or pigment that is added to food in order to make it more
appetising. A large amount of the food we eat everyday has added colour to it in order to make it
more appealing in appearance and therefore more desirable to us. Confectionary, breakfast cereals,
pickles, cakes, soft drinks, sauces, ice creams, potato chips, jams and jellies, bread, chewing gum,
wine, biscuits, juices, noodles, chocolate, marshmallows, puddings, and so many other foods all have
added colouring to change the way it appears and make it more desirable to human beings. Even
fresh produce such as fruits and vegetables have artificial colour injected into them or are coated
with it in order to make them appear brighter and fresher than they are. Ever wondered why that
lettuce looks so green or those apples look so red and juicy? Food colouring is the answer.

Colour is added to food for numerous reasons. It is human nature to associate certain
colours with certain foods. We automatically expect cornflakes to be a certain shade of light brown
while we assume chocolate cereal to be a darker, richer brown. We think brown when someone says
the word chocolate, yellow when someone says custard and red when someone says tomato,
because that is what we are familiar with and have been exposed to. In addition, we assume that
foods possess certain qualities based upon the colour. For example, when out buying apples, we
naturally reach for the ones that appear bright red and have no blemishes on them with the
assumption that they will be sweeter, juicier, tastier, crunchier and fresher than the ones that are
dull and have a few spots on them. The colour of food influences human perception of its flavour.
During the manufacturing process, the natural pigments of the food are often lost due to the
addition of chemicals. The perceived colour of the food is then restored to it by adding artificial
colours. For the most part, processed food, especially junk food, is usually dull in colour or
colourless. Adding food colouring to drinks, candy, etc., is common practice in order to make them
more appetising. A good example of this are the colourful sweets we see in sweetshops during
festivals such as Diwali and the bright, neon carbonated drinks that we gulp down during the
summer. In Nature, fruits and vegetables are never really consistent in their colour. For example,
oranges from the same orchard may be different shades of the colour orange even if they are all
ripe. To ensure that the oranges appear uniformly the same in colour, a coat of artificial dye may be
added, thereby making them appear the same and making them more marketable since the
consumer is programmed to think that brighter means riper, juicier and fresher fruit. This holds true
for other fruits and vegetables as well. Poultry farmers too have been known to follow this trend and
feed food colouring to their hens in order for the eggs to have darker yolks.

Food that is prepared in restaurants often contains a lot of red and yellow colouring in order
to add to the aesthetic appearance and overall presentation of the food. In Indian restaurants
overseas, where Indian food is quite popular, the common assumption is that the redder the curry,
the more spicy and delicious it is, not to mention the fact that it is more authentically Indian.
Packaged spices, such as red chilli powder and turmeric, often contain other substances to enhance
their colour. Jalebis and other Indian sweets often contain large amounts of food colouring to make
them more appetizing.

Food colouring is not just used commercially but also in homes. For example, the
preparation of biryani calls for food colouring. Interestingly, the use of food colouring doesn't end
with food. is commonly used in the production of cosmetics, soaps, shampoos and moisturisers and
other similar products.

We belong to a culture that is extremely visual, bright colours are appealing to us. This
explains why even the packaging of processed food contains bright colours. The choice of colour is
an important (if subconscious) factor when choosing one food product over the other.

Food colouring is either natural or synthetic. Natural colouring agents are derived from fruits and
vegetables or in some cases even from animals or insects. Examples of natural food dyes are annatto
(reddish-orange), chlorophyllin (green), paprika (red), turmeric (yellow) and butterfly pea (blue).
Artificial dyes are chemically synthesised (usually from organic compounds such as hydrocarbons of
petroleum). Some common synthetic dyes are brilliant blue FCF (blue), erythrosine (pink), tartrazine
(yellow) and sunset yellow FCF (orange). In the preparation of food, colouring agents are used either
by themselves or in numerous combinations of natural and synthetic colours.

Given the fact that colouring agents are prevalent in the foods we consume, we should be
aware of the manner in which these substances can and do affect us. Many countries have banned
the use of certain dyes in food and allow only a select number of synthetic dyes to be used in the
production of food. However, in many countries, banning doesn't always work and regulations are
difficult to enforce. Even the use of permitted artificial colouring is known to have numerous serious
and undesirable effects such as problems in pregnancy and birth defects. Food colouring has also
been known to cause allergic reactions, hyperactivity, behavioural problems and organ damage.
Researchers have also associated colouring agents with asthma, insomnia and nervous disorders and
are of the opinion that they might pose other long-term health risks. Some dyes are believed to be
carcinogenic i.e., they contain cancer-causing agents. It is a good idea to bear in mind that these
artificial food colouring agents do not occur naturally but are man-made chemical compounds. Food
colouring is mostly found in junk food and food consumed by children and young adults, these age
groups are the most vulnerable and are at the greatest risk. It may safely be stated that food
colouring does not serve any purpose save that of cosmetically enhancing the appearance of food
while causing harm to our bodies.
 In various countries across the world, government agencies are conducting tests on the
effects of both natural and synthetic colouring in food. In addition, a number of renowned
independent organisations are actively involved in research and assisting with quality control and
standardisation. The Indian government has put in place a number of laws and regulations with
regard to the use of food colouring. These regulations govern which food colouring can be used and
in what quantities, which foods they are permitted to be used in, and the maximum amount of food
colouring that can be used in any quantity of food at a given time. Some government websites
contain a detailed explanation of the laws and also have a list of products that are adulterated with
food colouring.

The food industry lays emphasis on the fact that colour is an important element in the
appearance and marketing of a product. Although natural dyes are considered to be safer than
natural ones, the food industry is rather reticent in switching to natural colouring agents due to
financial reasons. Natural food dyes are also less bright than artificial ones and therefore less
appealing. In addition, they may occasionally contain trace flavours of the original product they were
extracted from which would mix with the intended flavour of the product they are being added to
thereby altering the flavour of the product. Synthetic dyes are meant to be odourless and tasteless
and are also readily available, more economical to produce since only very small quantities need to
be used and are more concentrated in nature. Even in developed countries, manufacturers use
natural dyes only when compelled by law.

Are you curious to know whether the processed food you buy contains artificial dyes?
According to law, manufacturers are required to list all food additives on the packaging of the
product. You should check the list of ingredients or look for a line that begins with 'Contains.... Food
colouring agents are identified by the specific codes assigned to them by regulatory bodies by which
they may be identified in the list of ingredients. Some of the most common codes are the Colour
Index Number (CI No.); the European Community Number (EEC No.); the Federal Food, Drug, and
Cosmetic Act Certification (FD & C No.); and the Indian Standard Number (IS No.). For example, the
common yellow dye tartrazine may be identified by the following codes: EEC No.: E102; FD & C No.:
Yellow 5; IS No.: 1694. So, if your favourite brand of mustard or butter or popcorn lists Yellow 5 or IS
1694 as one of the ingredients, you're about to ingest some tartrazine. The internet provides a list of
codes for food colouring for reference.

As a consumer, there are a few measures that you can take to avoid being affected synthetic
colouring:

a) Be an informed consumer. Always remember that as a consumer you are entitled to as much
information as you want before you purchase a product. Read the information on the product
carefully before you buy it.

b) Check the labels of food products that you plan to buy in order to know what synthetic dyes they
contain. Extensive lists are available online to help you do that.

c) Use standardised products; these must meet government regulations regarding the use of food
colouring.

d) Chek for products that use natural colouring and opt to purchase those instead.

e) Reduce consumption of junk food. You have many reasons that will prompt you to do.

f) Try to avoid colouring as much as possible. Eat home-made fresh food. It might be more time
consuming but is definitely the healthier option.
g) Use natural additives such as beetroot juice, spinach juice, red cabbage and turmeric to add
colour to your food.

The debate on the health hazards of food colouring is unending. But it may be safely
concluded that the use of synthetic food colouring is entirely avoidable. We must ensure that we are
not taken in by the bright, glossy, colourful packaging because appearances can be deceptive. Now
that you are aware of the health hazards of synthetic food colouring, you should be on a mission to
make your friends and loved ones aware of it. You might just be saving lives!