To Know When to Say

‘It’s none of Your Business’

- McCormack
Introduction:
Mark Hume McCormack was the founder and CEO of the sports management
conglomerate International Management Group, which represents such celebrities as Tiger
Woods, Andre Agassi and Venus and Serena Williams. His 1984 book What They Don’t Teach
You at Harvard Business School was a best-seller. In the essay, the author discusses about the
importance of being strict, stiff and frank, especially in business. As a general rule, we should
be ready to say “It’s none of your business” to any person if at all he/she tries to invade our
privacy.
Incorrigible Snoop:
At the beginning, the author talks about an incorrigible snoop who worked in his
company. This snoop had a thirst to know what other people are doing. He wasn’t sneaky. He
was charmingly open when he pried and he used some tactics too. No one in the organization
had the guts or courage to say “It’s none of your business” to this snoop when he tried to peep
into other’s personal matter. The author says, many awkward (difficult to handle) moments in
business occur because people can’t say, “It’s none of your business”. Most people are curious
in nature. Even the highly curious people know what’s appropriate to ask and what’s not. The
snoop at the author’s office was actually innocent. However if he started questioning people
on confidential areas, they would have suspected him.
Two areas where we should maintain our secrecy:
McCormack states that for two topics we should be ready to say “It’s none of your
business”. It is about someone else’s money and personal life. These are the two important
areas where we have to maintain secrecy. The author is surprised to see how aggressively
people pry into these areas and how much they reveal on these subjects.
First important area: Money
If we take the case of money, certain types of money discussions are taboo
(restricted). Times have changed. But still we know that another person’s salary is none of
our business. The author describes the story of a foolish agent who got into trouble. The agent
had a client who was a writer. He was fixed to write the text of an illustrated book for a
publisher. One day the writer phoned the agent to know about the pay of the illustrator. The
foolish agent called the publisher who shouted back at her. The author feels that this entire
embarrassing event would have been avoided if the agent had told the client, ‘You have
accepted the fee. What the illustrator gets is none of your business”.
Second important area: Personal life
McCormack suggests that our personal life is another area where we should maintain
secrecy. Yet a lot of people try to snoop over one’s personal life. In a working environment
where people work for more than eight hours a day, it is obvious to develop a friendly
relationship with others. We may share few personal details with them. Sometimes our close
associates whom we believe might pull our legs one day with our personal information’s.
He gives an example of the CEO accompanied by two of his senior staff. As one of the
staff was quite ignorant of the discussed topic, the CEO snapped briskly and suddenly at him
in front of the author by saying “May be you would know more if you didn’t spend your
evening on the phone with your girlfriend in Chicago. The author was shocked by this
event. The staff trusted him as a friend and revealed his personal details, but the CEO abused
that trust and he used that information to criticize him in front of the author. This really
weakened the Boss-Subordinate relationship.
 Conclusion: It is always good to maintain secrecy in certain areas to avoid such
circumstances. Through these incidents the author emphases the need to say “It’s none of your
business”

The Toys- Poem by Coventry Patmore

The Toys by Coventry Patmore

OUTLINE OF THE ESSAY:
 INTRODUCTION
 CHILD’S DISOBEDIENCE
 FATHER REGRETS
 THE TOYS
 GOD IS MERCIFUL
 CONCLUSION
INTRODUCTION: “The Toys” is one of the most beautiful poems written by Coventry
Patmore. He was born in London in 1823. He associates his poems with the everyday
happenings of life and has a deep concern for religion. His publications are, ‘The Angel in
the House’, ‘The Unknown Eros’ and other odes. Patmore died in 1896.
The poem, ‘The Toys’ is highly religious. The poem relates the story of a father and son. The
father treats his son harshly but later realizes his mistake and asks God to forgive him for
his foolish behaviour.
CHILD’S DISOBEDIENCE: The poet tells us how he punished his son for disobedience. The
child acted and talked just like a grown up man. He made noise. His father asked him to
keep quiet but the son did not obey him. At seventh time, the father punished his son and
sent him away without the usual kisses. The child was much grieved. He left his father and
went to bed.
FATHER REGRETS: After sometime, the poet realized that he had made a mistake, as his
son was lonely since his mother had died. He feared that the child might not be able to sleep
due to his grief. He went to his bedside, but he found the child asleep. His eyelids were
swollen due to weeping. His eye lashes were still wet with the drops of tears.
THE TOYS: The father became more emotional when he found that his son had very neatly
arranged some pieces of glass, a red veined stone, some shells and a bottle of blue bells and
two French copper coins on the table. They were simple but enough to comfort him. He
noticed that the boy had sought consolation in small ordinary objects to comfort his sad
heart. It was a touching scene for the father whose wife was dead and there was no one to
console the child. He felt sorry for his attitude. The father bent over the child and kissed
away the tears from the boy’s cheeks, but tears from his own eyes dropped on his son’s face.
GOD IS MERCIFUL: In this poem the poet points out that God is always kind and merciful to
man but man often fails to follow the commands of his creator. He provides man with all the
simple joys of life. Yet there are some who do not fear God even on their death bed. God
 knows that though we had been disobeying His commands and enjoying ourselves with
worldly things, yet He forgives us.
CONCLUSION: The father hopes that as he has forgiven his son God would pardon him for
his childishness. He prayed all night with the feeling that God is merciful and He would
forgive him.
Moral: As the saying goes ‘To err is human; to forgive is divine’ we should forgive the
mistakes of people and live friendly with all. God is merciful on us and he forgives those
people who forgive the mistakes of human beings.

The Conjurer's Revenge by Stephen Leacock

“THE CONJURER’S REVENGE” by Stephen Leacock

OUTLINE OF THE ESSAY:
 INTRODUCTION
 THE CONJURER
 QUICK MAN
 THE CONJURER’S SHOW
 THE FAMOUS JAPANESE TRICK
 THE CONJURER’S REVENGE
 CONCLUSION
INTRODUCTION: ‘The Conjurer's Revenge’ by Stephen Leacock is a humorous short story. A Conjurer deals
smartly with a troublesome person known as the Quick Man for spoiling his magic show.
THE CONJURER: The Conjurer is a skilled magician who performs magic tricks for an audience. He was so
talented that he could produce even a fish bowl from a piece of empty cloth. He could do difficult tricks like
extracting eggs from a hat. During a show, he meets the Quick Man who unnecessarily spoils the show.
Initially, the conjurer ignores him and continues with the show. Towards the end, the conjurer decides to
take his revenge on the Quick Man.
QUICK MAN: A ‘Quick Man’ is referred to a person who is crazy and fast in grasping, quick-witted but
cunning. Among the audience, there was one such man who whispered at the end of every trick that it was
all fraud. This upset the conjurer and spoiled the magical effect for the audience. He can be called as the
villain in the story.
THE CONJURER’S SHOW: The conjurer performed several tricks for the audience. From the beginning of
the show, the Quick Man keeps spoiling the show for the conjurer. He kept saying the audience that the
trick was done with the help of items hidden up the conjurer’s sleeve. When the conjurer produced a fish
bowl from a piece of empty cloth, the Quick Man said that this must have been up his sleeve. The next trick
was the famous Hindostanee rings. He joined two separate rings into one with a blow. The Quick Man
whispered that he had another lot up his sleeve. The conjurer worried a lot but he continued his tricks.
The conjurer got a hat from the audience and extracted seventeen eggs in thirty five seconds. The audience
thought it was wonderful but the Quick Man told he had a hen up his sleeve. The egg trick was ruined. The
conjurer got the same response for all his tricks. According to the Quick Man, the conjurer must have had
rings, eggs, cards, bread, a live guinea pig and a rocking chair hidden up his sleeve. These constant
comments by the Quick Man made the audience feel that the tricks were nothing special. This upset the
conjurer. However, he went on performing one trick after the other till he could take it no more. He decided
to take revenge.
THE FAMOUS JAPANESE TRICK: The conjurer announced that he would be showing the famous Japanese
trick. Appearing to perform a trick using items borrowed from Quick Man, he took the Quick Man's watch
and broke it to pieces. The Quick Man told the audience that the watch had been slipped into the conjurer’s
sleeve. The conjurer then took the Quick Man’s handkerchief and punched holes in it. The Quick Man
thought that this was a trick which he did not understand. The conjurer then took the Quick Man’s hat and
trampled on it. He then proceeded to burn the Quick Man’s collar and smashed his spectacles. The Quick
Man, all the while thought that this was just a trick. However, later the Quick Man and the entire audience
realized that what the conjurer did with the Quick Man’s things were not tricks.
THE CONJURER’S REVENGE: The conjurer's revenge was complete after he destroyed the belongings of the
Quick Man. The conjurer had succeeded in fooling the Quick Man with his permission. Thus the conjurer
took his revenge. The humorous part of the story is the seriousness with which he asked for the various
items of the Quick Man. The conjurer kept up the suspense till the end of the show by not letting either
Quick Man or the audience realize that the “trick” that he was performing at the end of the show was not a
trick but the real destruction of the possessions of the Quick Man. At no point of time did the Quick Man
realized that the Conjurer was taking his revenge.
CONCLUSION: The moral of the story is that, when we cannot appreciate a person, we should learn to keep
it to ourselves. If we unnecessarily irritate or cause any harm to another person, we will have to face the
consequences.

‘A Meeting in the Forest’ by George Bernard Shaw

‘A Meeting in the Forest’ by George Bernard Shaw
II Year III Semester Petrichor III

Introduction: ‘A Meeting in the Forest’ is an excerpt from the play “Androcles and the Lion” written by
George Bernard Shaw. Androcles and his wife Megaera leave their home to flee from the Roman
Persecutors.

The Humble Man: Androcles is a thin, little man .He has very poor looks. He and his wife flee
the Roman Empire and reach the middle of a dense jungle. He seems to be tired and hungry carrying
a big bundle.

The pampered Megaera : The pampered Megaera is his wife who has pretty looks and is always in
the comfort zone. She is well-fed, also very quarrelsome and quite disrespectful in her words. She is
famous for her negative qualities. She walks with the help of a stick through the forest.

Refusal and pleading: Megaera throws her stick and refuses to go any further. Poor Androcles pleads
her to keep walking to reach the nearby village before dark. He scares her about the lions in the
forest. She calls him a cruel person for making her walk .She does not believe his words about lions
and calls him selfish .She pulls down the bundle from his back.

Kindness of Androcles: He accepts all that he is blamed for by Megaera. He only shows his love and
concern for her. He never complains anything in return, about her.

The guilty Megaera: She keeps on speaking that he has made her a slave and has made himself a
laughing stock. People called her a shrew of a woman. She also blames him for being a soft spoken
man and to have been misled by her .She does not like him being kind and fond of animals.

The Calm and understanding Andy: Androcles, in his quiet manner speaks to his wife .He says that
he loves her and shows his concern for her .He also says that he is a pious Christian and is not
selfish. He accepts his fault of being addicted to drink.

Megaera retaliates: She firmly states that she could even bear his addiction to drinks and not to
animals. He had even grabbed the food for feeding the stray animals which he would bring home
every day and she strongly suggests him to live with animals than a wife.

The Responsible Andy: Androcles explains to his wife that all their things had been sold and they had
to starve or thrown to the lions if they had to return home.

The Encounter with the Beast: As always Androcles cares for animals he is worried for the loud groan
of a lion heard. He looks at the sleeping lion. He glares at the lion’s eyes and talks to the lion, asking
to spare his loving wife. To his astonishment, the lion holds up his paw and flaps it piteously before
Androcles. Andy feels sad for the lion in pain, with the thorn in his paw. So he just rests down to pull
out the frightful thorn, without the slightest pain. The beast bore all the pain, and understood the dear
old friend Andy. He rejoices with the beast’s paws in his hand.

Conclusion: Despite the true love of Androcles towards his wife and the innumerable sacrifices he had
made for her, Megaera still had not realized till the end and the story concludes with further grumbling
of hers regarding the Waltz and she complains that he has not danced with her.