Book Review

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You have recently read a book. Write a Review on the same with the help of the following points. 

• Title of the book
• Subject/ Story/Information
• Language/Style/Presentation
• Benefits/Message

Review on Ek Hota Carver by Veena Gavankar 

Recently I have read a book 'Ek Hota Carver' by Veena Gavankar. The book is in Marathi on the life of George Washington Carver. It is a biography of a great researcher of nineteenth century.  George was the son of Mary a negro slave. She was living with Mozes Carver's family as he has bought her. One day Mary and her son were taken away by some dacoits to resell the slaves as were the practice in those days.  Mozes tried to get back them and he succeeded in getting back only Mary's son in exchange of a horse. Mozes and his wife Suazanbai brought up this child as their child. He developed his interest in gardening. He was very weak and dumb child. He was sent to Neose for schooling. It was a school for Negros. By doing some odd jobs, he completed his schooling. He developed interest in painting and music too. He was good at education and started to speak without staggering. He was neglected higher education at Highland University because he was black. He got admission in State Iowa College. George got his MS degree in Agricultural and Bacterial Botany and became a professor of the same. Then he was invited in the school of Tuskegee . He accepted the invitation and joined the school. Here he joined hands with Dr. Washington Booker to serve his people. He did many researches there for the welfare of farmers nearby. George Carver invented peanut butter, paints and cotton product.He prepared laboratory instruments from the waste. He made researches in groundnut, sweet root, cotton. He discovered some eatables. 

The book is very interesting. The narrator creates mental picture of that period before us.

The language used here is simple and appropriate to the period. While reading the book we became the part of it. The author of this book Veena Gavankar has used her unique style giving details. The book introduces us with great researcher. It teaches us the hard work, sacrifice and gratitude.

 

Poem 2.2 Indian Weavers

How to deal with novel genre

I am very thankful to Dr. Suhashini Jadhav, Dr. Dipak Damodare, Dr. Gajanan Malokar , Avinash Rade , Pravin Muley, Dr. Shubhra Roy, Suniti Moharil, Anil Bagade and Sunil Patil for guiding and inspiring to come with this write-up. 

    Students are very much concerned about the preparation of the novel genre for some reason.The major shift in this section of Novel Genre is that this is memory based. So far as students are used to writing answers from the extracts in the activity sheet itself. For these 16 marks there will be no help from the activity sheet itself. So thorough knowledge of all 4 items in this section is very necessary. Students should follow the guidelines to understand the novel genre. In the Activity Sheet activities on History of Novel are MCQ based. These activities are True/ False, Match the pairs, odd out, fill in the blanks, chronological order, complete the table, choosing the alternative etc. For completing the activities of True/False, Fill in the blanks, Choose the alternative, students should write complete sentences. Only options are not acceptable. To match the pairs, write pairs. Matching only alphabets and numbers is not acceptable. In chronological order use numbers in order 1234. 

 1. Reading of the novel extract twice is essential. 

 2. Think about the happenings in the chapters of novel ie. plot of the chapters.Try to narrate important events. 

 3. Point out places and occurrence of events there. Look for the time ( year, season, period) references. Think about its relation with the story. It will help you to understand the setting of the novel. 

 4. Point out main characters, know their physique and qualities.Every fictional character has one dominant disposition, along with subsequent or supporting character traits. Usually there are two ways to understand a fictional character - what he does and what he says. Along with this, what he says about himself, what other characters say about him, how are his reactions to the events and actions in the novel, these things also help us to understand the character. Try to find out strength and weaknesses of the characters. 

 5. Point out important dialogues and their speaker, their effect ( change in thinking, working, turning the novel etc.). Find out the use of uncommon words, sentence/s, phrases etc (language ). Focus on the language used there. 

 6. Focus on the central idea of the novel and extract. Try to know what the narrator wants to tell. 

7. Identify the type of novel.... 'To Sir With Love' autobiographical novel, 'The Sign of Four' detective novel 'Around the World in Eighty Days' adventurous novel . 

8.Find out the twists and turns in the novel (conflict ). Try to know about the inner struggle of the character and also struggle between two characters. 

9. Study the impact and influence of events/incidents/language/even characters etc on the readers (you). 

10. Point out references where the reader ( here the student ) is motivated/ forced/ compelled to read the full length novel. 

11. We need to understand the message or moral of the novel.

Prafulla Mahure 

Mahatma Gandhi Jr College Gadchandur Moderator Nagpur Division

Grammar Competancy

1.8 Vovaging Towards Excellence: Question Bank

 Read the extract and solve the activities.                         (12)

I scored 100% marks in Mathematics in almost all the examinations that I appeared for from my 1st standard until IIT, barring only a few times. I stood 16th in the SSC Board (at that time, this examination was for the whole of Maharashtra, including Nagpur) and I stood 1st in the University in all subjects put together. Those days, you could get an admission into IIT without the entrance test (JEE) if you had secured the 1st rank in the University. Therefore, I did not have to appear for the 

entrance test to get the admission into IIT, but nobody in Solapur told me about it, for I doubt if anybody in Solapur even knew about this rule. Therefore, I appeared for the entrance examination, and I secured a very good rank in the same. I was quite happy getting into IIT, but my joy was short lived. At Solapur I had not seen any building which was more than three storeyed. Mumbai however was full of skyscrapers. At IIT, most of the students and professors used to converse in English whereas my 

English was very poor. I had my entire education in Marathi. My spoken English was quite pathetic. Not only did I have a very weak vocabulary, but, my pronunciation also was terrible and my construction of English sentences very awkward to say the least. Due to all this, I was feeling quite lonely and terrified in Mumbai in general and  IIT in particular. I had developed an inferiority complex and wanted to run away from IIT and even Mumbai.

One day, I was sitting at my mess table in the hostel sipping tea when a senior guy came and sat on the chair adjacent to me. He was a convent educated guy with fairly sophisticated English- at least spoken or colloquial English. He was a bit arrogant and wanted to pull my leg. He tried to engage in some conversation with me and started pointing out errors in just about every sentence or everything that I said. After about 5 minutes he walked away after insulting me.

 I felt extremely humiliated and upset. As it is, I was feeling quite depressed and diffident and this incident was the last straw. I was almost broken. I felt out of place there and literally wanted to run away to Solapur that very moment. However, it was only my self-esteem which stopped me. Suddenly, a feeling of determination and strength came over me and gripped me. Despite hailing from Solapur, if I could be a rank holder in the school, college and IIT with many awards in Mathematics, there must be something right with me. Why should I give up? And that too for a silly and small thing like English? I was not to give up anymore, and I was determined to fight back.

IIT, most of the students and professors used to converse in English whereas my 

English was very poor. I had my entire education in Marathi. My spoken English was 

quite pathetic. Not only did I have a very weak vocabulary, but, my pronunciation 

also was terrible and my construction of English sentences very awkward to say the 

least. Due to all this, I was feeling quite lonely and terrified in Mumbai in general .

A1 Complete the given statements. (2)

i. The writer got admission in IIT as he got good rank in the entrance examination for IIT.

ii. The poor English of the writer was responsible for his sense of feeling quite lonely and terrified in Mumbai.

A2 Describe the state of mind of the writer when he came from Solapur. (2)

Ans: When he came to IIT Mumbai from Solapur, he was very happy. But his happiness and joy was short lived. Seeing the skyscrapers in Mumbai  he developed inferiority complex . He wanted to run away from Mumbai . 

A3 The incident of the insult by a senior was a blessing in disguise for the writer. Explain. (2)

Ans:  After the insult by a senior guy, the writer literally wanted to run away. But his self esteem stopped him doing so. A feeling determination and strength came over him. He decided to fight back . That incident turned to be a blessing in disguise. 

A4 We need a punch to push ourselves forward. Share your experience. (2)

Ans: We need punch to push ourselves forward. I was very weak in mathematics. The teacher and students used to tease me. They called me discovery of zero. It made me very upset. One of my friends offered to teach me. I started working hard and got 100 out of 100 in final exam. 

A5 Do as directed. (2)

i. Not only did I have a very weak vocabulary, but my pronunciation also was terrible.

[Choose correct alternative to rewrite the sentence as a simple sentence]

a. I had a very weak vocabulary with terrible pronunciation.

b. I had a very weak vocabulary and my pronunciation was terrible.

c. I did have a very weak vocabulary along with terrible pronunciation.

d. I had a weak vocabulary as well as terrible pronunciation.

ii. I felt extremely humiliated.

[Choose correct alternative to rewrite the sentence using the noun form of the underlined word.]

a. I felt extremely humiliation.

b. I felt extremely humiliating.

c. I felt extreme humiliation.

d. I felt extreme humiliating.

A6 Prepare a word register for ‘language’

Ans : feelings , communication, thought, spoken , written, literature, messages, letter, sound, alphabets, vowels, consonants 

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