College Road, Bongaon, North 24 Parganas, W.B., India • Issue 2 • Month : August, 2013 • 3/-

Tota was playing with hercooking utensils on theverandah. This is the thirdphase of her playing games andgetting funs. She woke up inthe early morning and startedplaying. She did not wash hermouth, brush her teeth. Shestarted making the JunglePlayhouse. She got it on her lastbirthday. Her Kaku gave it toher. Kaku in Bengali is uncle.But here Kaku is a name andnot Tota’s uncle.Tota’s parentsalso call him Kaku. In Kaku’shouse she is not Tota , but asKaku affectionately calls her‘Bhuvo’. Kaku , Kaku, andKaku , all day she shouts. Kakubring this, bring that as if Kakuis Aladin’s monster fulfilling allher dreams and making themtrue. Kaku is her friend. Since

her babyhood ,she used to lisp‘taku’ and then comes to callinghim‘Kaku. Kaku’s gift wasunique.

It was a jungle house withall the pictures of animals andbirds on the sheet of colouredcanvas which wrapped thefibre sticks. Making of theplayhouse was not that easy.It had a total 13 such stickswhich were to be placed andfitted in the right point. Kakuwas sweating every day tocalculate the fittings in theappropriate joints and make theplayhouse. Now Tota can makeit on her own. She plays nearlytwo hours in it. She imaginesshe has gone to a deep forest.There like the prince of thefairy tales she bears a swordand fights the demons andmonsters.Tota forgets that sheis a girl and she can be aprincess and not a prince. Hermother laughs to see all thesechildish fancies of Tota.Sometimes she joins herself in

Tota andtheBlueSchoolBus

the games whenshe feels thatBooni is hungry.She comes as anold woman andtells/Tota , ‘I aman oldwoman(buri) .The monster isnow far awayfrom here. Ihave taken thismilk and Kellogchocos for youfrom the kitchenof the monster.You have yourfood now before that cruelmonster comes.’ .Tota enjoysher mother being an old womansaving food for a child from thekitchen of a cruel monster . Itdoes not give any food tochildren and makes themstarve. Tota curses themonster and before its cominggobbles up milk and chocos.

Tota then plays with herdolls . On her birthday she has

1. The word “alphabet”comes from the first twoletters of the Greek alpha-bet: alpha, bçta.

2. The only word in Englishthat ends with the letters“-mt” is “dreamt” (whichis a variant spelling of“dreamed”) - as well ofcourse as “undreamt” :)

3. The longest word with onlyone vowel is ‘strengths’ (9letters long).

4. The longest one-syllableword is ‘screeched’.

5. The longest word with allthe letters in alphabeticalorder is ‘almost’.

6. The most commonly-usedword in conversation is ‘I’.

7. The word “set” has moredefinitions than any otherword in the English lan-guage.

8. “Underground” is the onlyword in the Englishlanguage that begins andends with the letters “und.”

DID YOU KNOW?

English WorldStudents’

AMust Read International English Magazine For English Learners

Cont...

(A Short Story for Children )

Dr.(Lieutenant) Ratan BhattacharjeeThe chairperson of Post Graduate English Dept of Dum Dum Motijheel

College, and Guest Faculty of Rabindra Bharati University.

got this year nearly 16 dolls andteddy bears, five of them arevery large . She imagines themto be real. One pussy cat isthere. Tota shouts ‘PussyPussy cat where have youbeen,/ I have been to Londonto visit the queen’. Her Kakumade a recording of therecitation and sometimes sheenjoys seeing that on thecomputer.

�A wonderful and instructive newspaper!!! It camejust in time for me! My daughter is 6 years old and wewill start learning English soon so, your newspaperwill help me plenty!!! great idea!!! Ablessing in disguiseof a newspaper!!! Thank you!!!�

IULIA GHERGHEIA poetessand technical director,National Radio Broadcasting-Radio Romania CulturalBucharest, Romania

�Wishing Santanu Halder of River View Publicationsevery success with his new venture: Students�English World. Having read the whole of the contentsof this first edition I can sincerely recommend thispublication to anyone who wishes to learn the Englishlanguage or extend their English vocabulary. There issomething for any student of any age here; fromeducational pieces to word puzzles to humour. Equallyimportant, there is the chance for students to submittheir own work to Students� English World - to seetheir writing in print. An excellent monthly Englishtabloid. I am sure it will go from strength to strength.�Warm Regrads,

BEST

WISHES

JUDITH BARROW, A famous writer and dramatist, Pembrokeshire, England

Special Issue

Cont. Page-7

Famous Quotes“Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; smallminds discuss people.” –Eleanor Roosevelt

We are what our thoughts have made us; so take care aboutwhat you think. Words are secondary. Thoughts live; they travelfar. –Swami VivekanandaDon’t limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what theythink they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. Whatyou believe, remember, you can achieve. –Mary Kay AshA man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enoughto profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.

– John C. MaxwellDon’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seedsthat you plant. – Robert Louis Stevenson

1. I am always hungry,I must always be fed,The finger I touch,Will soon turn red2. What is in seasons, seconds,centuries and minutes but notin decades, years or days?3. Until I am measuredI am not known,Yet how you miss meWhen I have flown.4. Each morning I appearTo lie at your feet,All day I will followNo matter how fast you run,Yet I nearly perishIn the midday sun.5. Two in a corner,1 in a room,0 in a house, but 1 in a shelter.What am I?6. Every dawn begins with meAt dusk I'll be the first you seeAnd daybreak couldn't comewithout What midday centersall about Daises grow from me,I'm told And when I come, Iend all cold But in the sun Iwon't be found Yet still, eachday I'll be around

RIDDLESFORYOU

Tongue Twisters are not onlyfor light-hearted linguisticfun and games. They servea practical purpose in prac-tising pronunciation.English tongue twisters maybe used to improve accent.

TTTTTongue Tongue Tongue Tongue Tongue Twisterswisterswisterswisterswisters

� There was a writer calledWright, he taught his son towrite Wright right: “It's notright to write Wright 'Rite',please try to write Wrightright!”

� There those thousand think-ers were thinking how did theother three thieves go through.

� She thrust three thousandthistles through the thick ofher thumb.

� Which Swiss witch switchedthe Swiss wristwatches?

� Bill had a billboard, Bill also hada board bill. The billboardbored Bill so Bill sold the bill-board to pay for the board bill.

� Bad dead bed-bugs bleed bugblood.

� It's a nice night for a white ricefight.

Students’ English World2Students’ English World Issue 2 • Month : August, 2013

A hearty welcome to the second issue of Students'ENGLISH WORLD, an international English Magazine forEnglish Learners. We are happy to know that the readersfrom all corners of the world read and liked our first issue.We cordially thank to the readers on behalf of the wholepublication team. As we had promised in the first issue, herewe introduced a special section named Students' CREATIVE

WORLD- a creative platform where the students from allover the country can show their hidden talents to the wholeworld. This is a special issue because respected professors,teachers from all over the country contributed to our presentissue. We remain ever grateful to them for their encourag-ing contributions. In order to celebrate our IndependenceDay on 15th August, a new section has been added to thiscurrent issue. Hope all of you will read and enjoy this issue.There are so many interesting stories, illuminating articles,jokes, riddles, and many known and unknown facts aboutEnglish Language and Literature in our second issue. Bestwishes.

Welcome MessageSPECIAL ARTICLE

To know the answersread our next issue

Month : August, 2013

You Can Also Win :Life Of A Miracle Man!

Itibritte Chandal Jiban (2012) is a thrillingand blood chilling discourse!! We hardly meet aperson like him who is a living example of in-domitable vitality for survival in a class and casteridden society.

We don't know his exact birth year (1950?)as Manoranjan Byapari's mother could notrecord the date of his birth. He came fromBarishal, Bangladesh to West Bengal at the ageof three. He was in Bankura, ShiromanipurRefugee camp for nearly seven years since hewas three years old. Suddenly one day, the dolegiven by the government to the refugee campwas stopped and the family had to move out tothe Ghutiyari Sharif, Gholadoltala Refugee Campin South 24 Paraganas. His parents lived theretill late '60s. In 1964 he left home at the age offourteen in order to earn a liv-ing for my family. He went toNew Jalpaiguri and worked ina tea stall. Then he moved onto Assam, Lucknow, Delhi andAllahabad. In 1969 he and hisfamily (his parents, two broth-ers, two sisters) moved toJadavpur, Kolkata. In 1971 theymoved to Dandakaranya,Paralkot. Byapari shifted backto Kolkata in 1973 while his par-ents kept living in Paralkot forsometime more. In the sameyear he took up rickshaw-pull-ing as occupation near Jadavpurrailway station. Both his parentswere illiterate. He had no dreamfor a better tomorrow. In 1975he was involved in hooliganism in the Jadavpurarea. Byapari was arrested and convicted un-der sections 148, 149 and 307 of the Indian Pe-nal Code. While in jail for two years from 1975- 1977. A chain of experiences there influencedsignificantly in his life.

There he met a man who claimed to haveturned mad reading Sarat ChandraChattopadhyaya's 'Charitrahin'. It immenselysurprised Byapari.The possibility of such longyears of imprisonment intimidated Byapari. Heexpressed concern to one under trial prisonersaying that he could not imagine how he wouldspend so many years in the prison, when lifewas proving to be so frustrating already! In re-sponse the prisoner pointed out to a banyan sap-ling on the wall of National Library (whose ad-joining Campus was visible from the jail) andasserted: if that sapling could draw its nutrientsfrom those concrete walls, then it was definitelypossible to absorb life from within this appar-ently dismal jail campus too! One only needs tosearch it out!! He then went on to sing the glo-ries of education, which could give life to hu-mans even in most deadening situations - hewould share stories of how a character of thestory accepted voluntary isolation for years inlieu of a great amount of money, but then hestarted reading, and how learning helped himout of maddening loneliness, and how he wasemancipated to the extent of deliberately break-ing the terms of the challenge by leaving the

DR. JAYDEEP SARANGIAssociate Professor, Deptt.of English

Jogesh Chandra Chaudhuri College (Calcutta University)

confinement aday before thestipulated timewould end andthereby forgoing the prize money, as he had ex-perienced that knowledge had enriched him farmore than that awaiting money ever could!Byapari had a complete paradigm shift and thestories ignited in him the hunger for education.

From then on the prison-friend started teach-ing him Bengali alphabets and he practiced themwith twigs on the dust and chalk on the floors!In those days they used to buy blood from will-ing donors. He used to sell blood for Rs 20/-and buy pen and paper with that. He was inthree jails in a span of two years time : AliporeSpecial Jail, Central Jail and Presidency Jail.

Byapari started pulling rickshaw and roughdays followed. One day a lady got on to myrickshaw. As he pulled the rickshaw through thestreets, he asked her the meaning of the Bengaliword "jijibisha". The lady was taken aback andasked him wherefrom he got this word. Whenhe mentioned the source, the lady was surprisedto learn that he could read! She then revealedherself as activist-writer Mahasweta Devi!!Thus, on goes the narrative of the incredible vi-cissitudes of his life.

The life that Byapari has lived must be sharedwith many. He has come back from the jaws ofdeath many times. Recently again he was fight-ing death, and he had a strong feeling that hislife-story must be documented in print, or else itwill be lost with him. He feels it's important forpeople to know that someone survived in suchhorrid conditions. His writings represent all thosepeople who continue to live in such inhuman cir-cumstances. Professor Meenakshi Mukherjee'scontribution to Economic and Political Weekly(2007), where she voiced his works, remains amilestone in his life. She propagated Byapari'sworks all over India and in alien shores. Throughher article, many realised for the first time thatthere are Dalit writings in Bangla.

Itibritte Chandal Jivan is a reading won-der indeed; a fascinating account of a miracleman! If he can, we all can make our days count!

(a version of this appeared in muse india:http://www.museindia.com)

3Students’ English WorldMonth : August, 2013

Dreams are generally takento be imaginary things. When-ever we hear the word"dream", we think of thosestrange scenes that we watchwhen we sleep. Generallyspeaking, adream is a happything. It is some-thing which canbe compared toan air bubble. Itexists as long aswe are asleep.The moment weare awake, it is nomore.

At the end ofa busy day, we goto bed with the glad expecta-tion of having at least onepleasant dream. When we wisheach other "good night," wemostly wish "sweet dreams"too. Truly, having a good dreamis a "sweet" experience. It canbe compared to watching agrandly colourful movie in themysterious darkness of the

movie hall. The only differenceis that we do not have to buytickets for this magic movie.Like a movie, a dream has itshappy moments of smiles andcelebrations, moments of multi-coloured joy. It is an episodethat leaves us happy just like afeel-good film.

However, there are dreamsthat come to us outside sleepalso. These are wakingdreams. And these are muchmore important than the oneswe watch while in sleep. Thesewakeful dreams are about ourfuture, about what we want tobe. These are thoughts andideas that inspire us to work forfulfilling our ambitions. We can-not manage to progress in lifewithout our ambitious dreams.

We must dream in order tomake sure that we have a lifeof real happiness and prosper-ity. An absurd thing thus be-comes our passport to reality.Strange, isn't it? I remembersome famous personality saythat a person without money isnot poor, but a person withoutdreams definitely is.

Dreams � A Many-Splendoured Thing

Prof. Zenith RoyAssistant Professor, Head ofthe Department of English atDinabandhu Mahavidyalaya

RooRoo ran out through the gap

in the wall at the back of thehouse. He hadn't seen it before.He flapped his hands, held itbefore his eyes and peeredthrough them and ran and ran,laughing, gurgling, chucklingand smiling. The front grill ofthe small old dark claustropho-bic house lit up only by the pres-ence of loved ones, and elec-tricity even in the day timessometimes, was kept drawnshut and the front gate, an or-ange one, kept locked so hecould not escape by the use ofnot only the bolt but an alu-minium wire his grandfatherhad twisted around it so Roowould not escape. Roo couldnot untie that wire yet. But thistime Roo had been lucky. Theback door had been left openand for some reason no onewas observing him and heplayed in the back yard and fi-nally found the gap and ranthrough it, past the neighbour'sfront yard, out the gate, up theroad to the right and into themain road and kept running pastthe lights and sounds and ve-hicles and dark shapes andsolid masses of the strangeworld which only he inhabitedand knew.

The houseThe house was old and fall-

ing down except for the fact that

the old man kept it ship-shape,being tough and kind, not justto all, but to things and objectstoo.

Soon, the house erupted ina buzz of sound, frantic search-ing, calling and shock, fear, re-action. Mom and Joe and Abisearched everywhere in it forRoo, in increasing alarm anddesperation. Granddadsearched too.

Does God exist, and thattoo in you?

Dad ran out through the gapin the back wall. He went pastthe neighbour's house at theback calling Roo Roo RooRoooooo…

He went past theneighbour's gate and out.Where to turn to?

The right or the left?He was an agnostic but this

was no time to delay. God, heprayed, I believe you exist inme, that I am now literally inyou and you, so please makeme take the right turning.

He went to the right.Ran and ranAnother right, yet another,

but here no question of choices,thank God, then left on the…

Main roadNo sign yet.Past shops and people ask-

ing did you see a little child runthis way, please.

A man pointed yes. Thatway, he said.

He ran, he was now gasp-ing, out of shape and long timesince he had run like this. Outof breath.

Busy road. But. No sign ofan accident, anywhere.

Good.Then he came to a little side

road that he looked into acci-dentally and there stood awoman from the slum in thatroad holding Roo in her safestrong motherly womanlyhands.

She looked bemused and sodid the crowd gathered around

her as Roo could not talk butonly make sounds sweet orgrieving.

He went and took him fromher and thanked her profuselyso relieved that he asked hernothing not even her name andshe too said nothing seeing thelook on his face.

On the way back he metDad (Roo's Granddad), Anu,Joe and Abi, they having lockedthe house, searching franticallyon the main road.

He asked Abi, his youngerdaughter, did you think wewould lose him this time Abi?

No Dad, I knew God wouldbring him back.

He said nothing. He re-membered the turning he hadto take in the fork in the roadand kept quiet.

Does God exist, and that too in you?Dr A.VDr A.VDr A.VDr A.VDr A.V. K. K. K. K. Koshyoshyoshyoshyoshy

Presently Asst. Professor, Dept of English, Faculty of Arts(girls) Jazan University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Mr Knott and Mr Watt on the PhoneHello?Who's calling?Watt.What's your name?Watt's my name.Yes, what is your name?My name is John Watt.John what?Yes.... I'll call on you this afternoon.All right, are you Jones?No, I'm Knott.Will you tell me your name, then?Will Knott.Why not?My name is Knott.Not what?Not Watt. Knott.What?

Fun StuffA sad story

about Nobody

This is a story aboutfour people named Ev-erybody, Somebody,Anybody and Nobody.There was an importantjob to be done and Ev-erybody was sure thatSomebody would do it.Anybody could havedone it, but Nobody didit. Somebody got angryabout that, because it

Mr. Knott and Mr. Watt

A mother noticed her little daughter praying."Please God," the little girl kept saying. "Bless my father and mymother and make Bongaon , the Capital of West Bengal .""Why did you make such a strange request?" the mother asked."Because that's what I wrote in my Geography Exam this morn-ing!"

~ ~ ~Little Papai : In my family, I'm scared of my Mother.Little Piya : I'm scared of my Father.Little Tarok : It's my Grandmother I'm afraid of.Little Piya : What about you Tinku?Little Tinku : Ho! Ho! In my family,all the three are scared ofme!

~ ~ ~A husband phoned his wife from his office.Husband : I've got two tickets for the fashion show in town.Wife: That's wonderful! I'll start getting ready straight away.Husband : You'd better do. The tickets are for tomorrow's show.

~ ~ ~Mother : Ruma , how was the

play you attended at the theatre? Did it have a happy ending?

Ruma : Yes, in a way. Everybody was very happy when it finally ended.

JOKES

� was Everybody's job. Everybody thought Anybody coulddo it, but Nobody realised that Everybody wouldn't do it.It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody, whenNobody did, what Anybody could have done.

My Earnest WishTitas SarangiClass VSri Ramkrishna Saradapeeth Girls High School

Fire burns beneath the skyAll men are burntI walk along the muddy zigzag way

Badly in need of rain !

O My Green TreeSoumen Sarkar,Student of B.A Eng(H)Bongaon Dinabandhu Mahavidyalaya

O my green treeYou are great,You are beautifulAnd you are the best .But we,selfish peopleFor our own needWe cut the treesMercilessly...Is it right?

Great News for Students, Budding Poets,WritersAre you a student? Do you write poems,short shories in English? Do you want to

know when, how and where to send your writings?

RULES FOR SUBMISSIONS

For Poems : The theme of our next issue is MOTHER . Send any one poem on the theme but notmore than 10 lines. We accept only original works. Do not send any poem copied from others or writtenby others. We will publish quality works only.

For Short Stories : The theme of our next issue is SAVE WATER SAVE LIFE . Send any oneShort story not more than 500 words written by you. We accept only original works.Do not send anystory copied from others or written by others.We will publish quality works only.

Send it to our email : riverviewpublications@gmail.comPlease do not forget to mention your name,your complete postal address,the name of your school/

college/university,your mobile no. Unknown submissions will be rejected.Last date of submissions for the September issue: 20th August, 2013We accept only electronic submissions via e-mail as attached documents (Microsoft word only)Do not decorate your submission with lines, borders, special characters, etc, which may lead to

rejection . We cannot consider anything that has been previously published or accepted for publica-tion, anywhere, in any form. We examine all work received and accept that which seems best. We do notconsider simultaneous submissions.

TIME, the sovereign monarch of our earthly existencewill go on and on. Time is said to be eternal. It is said that ithas neither a beginning nor an end. Yet men are able to mea-sure it as years,months, days,hours, minutesand seconds. Theyhave also givenmeanings to thewords - past,present and fu-ture. True, timehas a meaning. Itmoves. What wasyesterday is nottoday. What is to-day will not be to-morrow. Yester-day is gone. Today is and tomorrow is yet to come. Yet timeis said to have no holiday. It exists always.

The entire creation moves on according to a time pattern.There is birth, growth and death. There is time for every-thing. Plants flower and give fruits. Seasons come accordingto time. A child is born, grows into boyhood, adolescence,youth, middle age and old age according to age and time.Every movement of creation is linked with time. One cannotgrow paddy in a month nor can a child become an adult in ayear. Everything is fixed to a time-frame.

Time is a free force. It does not wait for any one. It iscommonly said that time and tide waits for no man. Time ismoney. A minute not usefully spent is an eternal loss. Youcan never get back the lost minute. One has to strike the ironwhen it is hot. The time flies and never returns. If you wastetime it wastes you.

'Time is the best medicine', says Ovid. It is said that timeheals all wounds and it even heals what reason cannot. Allhuman beings are emotional. When negative emotions likefear, anger, envy and jealousy overtake them, they lose rea-son and act in haste leading to serious consequences. Theymay repent later, as emotions cool down. But the damagedone is done and remains forever. Even that damage canheal with the passage of time. People involved may forgetand forgive. That is the importance of time and its healingtouch.

4

ACROSS3. This takes you places and,

rhymes with far.4. Use your arms when you do this.6. Use this to hear.8. This takes lots of children to school.9. This is a fruit.

To know the answersread our next issue

WORD PUZZLE : 2

Students’ English WorldMonth : August, 2013

DOWN1. This holds things and can

be made of glass or plastic.2. Eat this for dessert.5. This is the colour of

most plants.7. Opposite of down.8. This rings when you hit it.

Don't Kill NatureRitabrata SahaCygnet Day SchoolAge - 8+, Class 2...

Don't kill natureFor the treesWhich keep us aliveAnd for the birdsWho sing in the treesFor the animalsWho are living beingsIf you kill natureWe will dieSo don't kill natureFor all living beings

An UrgeAtithi Sarkar, Student of B.AEng(H)Bongaon DinabandhuMahavidyalaya

Hello! Are you listeningto me?I am a little flowerI am crying.Why are you punishingme?I am not a thief,not arogueNot a demon, not a Sa-tanBut why?

Students’ Creative World

Time and its Importance

Cont. Page-6

5Students’ English WorldMonth : August, 2013

Students’ Creative World1 3

4

5

6

78

1. Art A, 2. Arnab Ghosh, Class-IV, Kulberia Primary School, 3. Art A, 4. Anisha Halder, Class- VII, (K.U.B.V.), Tanwi Das, Class- VII , (K.U.B.V.),6. Keya Mukherjee, Class- VII , (K.U.B.V.), 7. Shreyashi Tikader, Class- VII , (K.U.B.V.), 8. Shreya Halder, Class- VII , (K.U.B.V.)

2

Once upona time LordBuddha was

travelling from one town to an-other town to collect new ex-periences. A few followerswere with him. They asked somany questions and Buddhaanswered them smilingly. Thiswas a fine sunny morning. Ev-eryone enjoyed the journey infull mood. But Buddha feltthirsty. He asked one of his dis-ciples to fetch some water.Then the disciplesearched andsearched. Suddenly hesaw a lake at a dis-tance. The disciplewalked up to the lakeinstantly. But alas!When he reachedthere, he noticedpeople were wash-ing clothes and dirty thingsrubbishly. Even at that momenta bullock cart started crossingthoroughly the lake foolishly.The blue-greenish water turnedto very muddy, very dirty. Thedisciple was very depressedand decided not to collect suchmuddy and dirty water. So hereturned and informed Buddhaabout the water not fit for drink-ing. They started walkingagain. But after half an hourthey were too tired to proceed.Buddha again asked the dis-ciple to fetch water from thelake. The Obedient disciple ranto the lake in no time. When hearrived he stood perplexed andmotionless. What did he see?Now he saw a beautiful lakewith clear placid water. Themud had settled down and wa-

6 Students’ English WorldMonth : August, 2013

How to achieve Peace of Mind

ter above it so clear like crys-tal. The disciple collected wa-ter in a pot and returned hap-pily. Lord Buddha quenched histhirst and advised the disciple,

"See what fine water you havegiven me, such clear water, nomud, and no dirt. You have togive time to let the mud settledown on its own- and at lastyou can get clean water." LordBuddha glanced at the discipleand said, - "your mind is likethat muddy water. Let it settledown and down and at last itwill be calm and quiet. Whenthe mind is disturbed, don't tryto open the door of it." Yes LordBuddha affirms- peace of mindis an effortless process. Whenone can achieve peace and har-mony within his own self, onlythen he can spread the show-ers of peace to the wholeworld.

Little Buffy and her Birthday GiftSantanu Banerjee

Head, Dept. of Mass Communication &Videography at Vidyasagar University

Buffy, the little butterflyopened her eyes to the bright sunof a new dawn. Buffy rubbed hereyes and stretched out her legsand spread out her colourful wingsto feel the morning breeze. Shehopped out off her bed on thebranch. She leapt onto the green,dew soaked leaves.

She chased to her Mom's shellnearby.

"Good morning, my baby",Mom greeted her.

Buffy yelled, "Do you remem-ber what today is?"

"No, what is today?" Momteased her a little.

"It is my Birthday", exclaimedBuffy with conceit, "I'm fivemonths old today."

"Oh," mom said, "Is it yourbirthday Today?"

"Mom, you forget! Don'tyou?" murmured Buffy.

"Can a Mom ever forget herKids' birthday? It's the most favor-ite day of my life." Mom smiledand pulled out a tiny box fastenedwith a bright red ribbon. "It's foryou."

Buffy promptly pulled apart thewrapping paper and yanked offthe ribbon. She opened the boxand it was…… a cute little mouth

organ!Buffy was so happy. She im-

mediately picked it up and eagerlystarted playing.

Only to her surprise, it did notsound too melodious. Buffy gotdisappointed and threw down themouth organ.

Mom picked it up and returnedher saying, "Buffy, don't give up.

Try again. You'll hardly know howwell is it if you give up so quickly."

Buffy wanted the mouth organpassionately, but did not want totake the time to learn how to playit.

That night, Buffy tried again.The day after, she tried again. Inthe following evening, she triedagain. Each time she tried a little

longer and a little harder. One dayBuffy could play the most beauti-ful lyric on her mouth organ.

Buffy and her Mom would sitfor hours together while Buffyplayed the song over and overuntil it became perfect! Buffy wasso proud of herself and her Momwas so proud of her Buffy too! Be-cause, she did not give up hope.

Sibasis JanaAsstt.Prof. in English, Panskura Banamali College

Harry PotterHarry Potter sold about 400 million copies world-wide and has been translated into over 65 lan-guages.Though before the book's popularity, JoanneRowling had some difficulty finding a publisherthat believed her book could amount to anything.Finally Bloomsburry Press agreed to publish thefirst edition of Harry Potter, but only printed 500copies for thefirst editionfor fear ofthem not sell-ing. Also thepublisher re-quested thatthe authorwould not useher first name(Joanne) but rather her initials to make it lessobvious that the author is a woman assumingthat the book's main audience young boys wouldnot want to read a wizard book written by awoman. Since Joanne Rowling did not have amiddle name, she chose K for Kathleen.

JohnMilton

John Milton com-posed the greatestepic in the Englishlanguage ParadiseLost after he wasblind (between1658 and 1664).He claimed that hereceived nightly

Some Interesting Factsdivine inspiration, and during the day he com-posed his epic. Paradise Lost is packed withbiblical and mythological allusions-attesting toMilton's vast knowledge and incredible memory.

Where WouldShakespeare Be without

Marlowe?Marlowe, a Shakespeare contemporary, roseto fame in histwenties, beforeS h a k e s p e a r ehad accom-plished any no-table work.Marlowe was apioneer in com-posing blankverse (un-rhymed poetry)and using iambicpentameter for his two famous plays(Tamberlaine and Dr. Faustus). Shakespeare,who rose to fame soon after Marlowe, copiedMarlowe's style in all of his thirty-seven plays.

John KeatsJohn Keats was only about 5 feet tall-never-theless, by the time he died at age 24, he was aliterary giant, surpassing any other 24-year oldEnglish writer. We can only wonder if Keatswere to live to be an old man if his popularitytoday would exceed that of Shakespeare.Height of other British Romantic Authors:William Blake: 5 feetWilliam Wordsworth: 5 feet, 9 inchesPercy Shelley: 5 feet, 11 inches

Time is said to be a wise counselor. Passage of time al-lows an individual to grow. This growth gives experience.Experience helps decision making. Time reminds you to actand to act wisely. The wisest make use of the time fruitfully.It is said that the wisest grieve the most at the loss of time.

Those who do not know the importance of time, waste itor rather they spend it doing nothing. There is a proverbwhich says that killing time is not a murder; it is a suicide. Itmeans, by wasting time one is not harming others. On theother hand one is harming himself. Ordinary people merelygo on thinking how to spend their time. The wise and tal-ented make use of it fruitfully.

Some people always complain that there is no time forthem to do anything. That is not correct. If one wisely planshis activities, there will be time for everything happeningaccording to time. A man who is a part of nature cannotcomplain against time. Time is powerful. It conquers all. Menare only to obey it. Man cannot say that he has nothing ofhis own. Time which is valuable is all his own.

If you are not on time and miss the train, you miss it fore-ever. So also the time, once you miss it, it flies off. You cannever catch it. Hence it is called fleeting time. Let us learn touse our time fruitfully. This is the key to success.

Time and its ImportanceCont. Page- 4

Students’ English WorldMonth : August, 2013

Tota and the Blue School BusTota’s mother then leaves

her in a good mood. Sometimes, Tota does not want to takemilk. Her mother becomesvery angry, ‘Tota , I will keepall your dolls in the cupboard ifyou don’t have your breakfast.’Tota gives different names tothe dolls.She makes themdance,she talks with them, shechides them, she makes themsing,’Phule phule dhouledhoule’ .She also dances hourstogether singing this song.Since her childhood Totadances beautifully. She isintelligent enough to makestories about them. Sheimagines that some among thedolls go to school. Mother onceasked her,’Tota , why do yourdolls go to school?.Totacorrects mother by saying,’They are not dolls mother, theyare girls.They have names. Sheis Ayesha, she is Anushna, sheis Beauty….”.She goes ontelling endless names for thedolls.Mother repeats thequestions,” Ok, they are notdolls, but why do they go toschools?” Tota curtlysays,’They take tiffin at school’.”They don’t study there inschool!” Tota says, they haveto take all the tiffin, biscuits,lozenge, potato chips,

Cruikshank cake,grapes andagain the endless list of tiffinitems.

Mother enjoys the thirdphase of her games.Tota whichmeans parrot ,becomes achatterbox now. She talks somany things and now imitatesher mother.She has her gasstove, match sticks, pan,spoons, cups, glasses,plates, and what not.Shemakes dal, chatni, fish,chicken, potato fry andeven eggs. She enjoysmaking omlets. She hasseen how mother breaksthe eggs and mixes theyellow of the egg in a cup ,gives salt and sliced onion. Sheimagines one day she will makeomlet in the real kitchen. Sheknows the process of makingreal omlet.

Tota’s father is not at allhappy with all these. The childis not yet admitted to any goodschool. She is going to a so –called English medium K.Gschool in the locality. She learnsnothing there. Only coming andgoing with the school bag. Theteachers are underqualifiedthere. They teach the childrenwrong English. Tota’s father isvery much worried. Last yearhe collected forms from five

different schools. But nowhereshe got the chance foradmission. This year the Headclerk of one school assuredthat something can be done ifthe interview is good afterpassing in the written test. Totais taught alphabets by herfather in the evening when hermother is busy with the serials.

‘Nowadays , TV addiction isso much for the young and theadults’, Tota’s father angrilygrumbles. All day long Totawatches cartoons onGeebies.Chota Bheem is herfavourite. Tota knows a lotfrom the cartoons. Her fatheris sometimes surprised to seethe wit and intelligence of histiny daughter. But she is yet toprove it in school . For that sheneeds to have got admission inone of the best schools.

On the day of written test ,Tota’s father looked quiteserious. Her mother wore acostly sari. Tota is also welldressed. The earlier night Tota

Cont. Page- 1 chimed the rhymes all night.They reached school beforethe time. Tota’s father askedthe gateman about the chancefor admission. He was nothopeful.’There are 45 seatsand 4000 forms were sold,sir’.Tota entered the school,her parents were waiting withan unusual eagerness andcuriosity. This kind of writtentests are now fashions . Tiny 3

year old children are notto sit for such writtentests. Orally , they can askquestions. The clerksmiled and said, “Theseare not examinations, buteliminations’. In theevening they came back

home tired. This is happeningfor days together. Tota sat forwritten test in ten schools andfaced oral interview in fivewhere her name figures in themerit list.

For the last few days , thehouse looks like a prison. Tota’sgames have stopped. Shebecomes so serious. ‘You haveto be serious’ roared her father.Tota never saw this face of herfather. He is very anxious. Atnight Tota lies in the bed posingas if she were asleep. Sheheard her parents talking in alow voice, ‘Tomorrow is thelast chance for admission’.Tota listens to each and every

word of what the parents weretalking about. She rememberedthe questions in the school .Oneteacher asked:’ Do you knowthe number of colours in arainbow?” Tota could not tell.She saw rainbow in the sky, butnever counted the coloursseparately. She never imaginedthat it could help her admissionin a good school. Many suchquestions were asked and theanswers were not known toher. She knows that the blueschool bus will never take herif she is not admitted. Everyevening father comes and thetensed talk starts. Tota listensto each word with raptattention. She dreams that theblue bus has come to take herto school .

Admission may be anightmare , but the blue bus isa dream for her. Now her dollsalso go to school by this bluebus. Tota herself is not eligiblefor that. One such evening Totadoes not know when she hasfallen asleep. She wakes up inthe morning when the mothercalls her, ‘Tota, get up quick,your bus has come.’ Tota couldnot believe that she has passedin the admission test and hername comes in the first meritlist. The blue bus has at lastcome to take her to herdreamland.

7

India celebrates IndependenceDay on August 15 each year. In-dia became an independent nationon August 15, 1947. But the his-tory behind Indian independenceis very painful and is full of sacri-fices. And only because of thosesacrifices India freed herself fromthe shackles of British Empire on15th August 1947. It was an end-less struggle of millions facelessIndians, who made the inhabitantsunited and fought for the freedomof their own country.

NATIONAL SYM-BOLS OF INDIANational Flag of India

The National Flag of India isknown as 'Tiranga' in Hindi thatcan be translated as 'having threecolors. The Indian flag was de-signed as a symbol of freedom.The flag is a horizontal tricolour inequal proportion of deep saffronon the top, white in the middle anddark green at the bottom. The ra-tio of the width to the length ofthe flag is two is to three. In thecentre of the white band, there is awheel in navy blue to indicate theDharma Chakra, the wheel of lawin the Sarnath Lion Capital. Its di-

ameter approximates the width ofthe white band and it has 24spokes. The saffron stands forcourage, sacrifice and the spirit ofrenunciation; the white, for purityand truth; the green for faith andfertility.

National Animal of IndiaThe Tiger

National Anthemof India

Rabindranath Tagore, the famousNoble laureate and Indian poet

penned the five stanzas of thesong titled 'Jana-gana-mana'

National Bird of IndiaIndian Peacock has earned theglory of being the National Bird ofthe biggest democracy in theworld.

N

National Emblemof India

An Ashokan pillar at Sarnath nearVaranasi in Uttar Pradesh depictsfour lions on the top standing backto back. Its base has an elephant,a horse, a bull and a lion separatedby intervening wheels over a bell-shaped lotus and a Dharma Chakraor the Wheel of Law carved on it.This symbol was adopted as theNational Emblem of India by theIndian Government on 26th Janu-ary 1950.

National Flowerof India

The glory of being the National

Flower of India goes to 'Lotus' orthe water lily, an aquatic plant ofNymphaea family.

National Fruit of IndiaMangoes.

National Game of IndiaDespite the ever-growing popular-ity of cricket, Hockey has man-aged to still be the National Gameof India.

Indian National SongBankim Chandra Chaterjee penned'Vande Mataram' for his Bengalinovel 'Anand Math'. The songcharged with patriotic fervour andfull of praises for the motherlandwas an instant favorite among thefreedom fighters of the day.

National Tree of IndiaThe Banyan tree is the NationalTree of India.

Independence Day SpecialINDIA WINS FREEDOM

while they could learn to maketools and build themselveshouses. Without fire, they areworse off than the beasts."

Prometheus went boldly toZeus and begged him to give fireto the people, so that so they mighthave a little comfort through thelong, dreary months of winter.

"I will not!" said Zeus, "Notone spark will I share with them!For if men had fire they might be-come strong and wise like us, andafter a while they would drive usout of our kingdom. Besides, fireis a dangerous tool and they aretoo poor and ignorant to betrusted with it. It is better that weon Mount Olympus rule the worldwithout threat so all can be

happy."Prometheus didn't answer, but

he had set his heart on helpingmankind, and he did not give up."Mankind shall have fire, despitewhat Zeus has decided," he saidto himself. And with that thought,he snuck quietly into Zeus' do-main and stole a spark from Zeus'own lightning bolt. Prometheustouched the end of the long reedto the spark, and the dry substancewithin it caught on fire and burned

How Prometheus Gave Fire to Men

Published, Edited and owned by Santanu Halder on behalf of River View Publications (Licence No.- BM/Book-4/I/13-14), College Road, Bongaon, North 24 Parganas, PIN- 743235e-mail : riverviewpublications@gmail.com, Letter Setting : Simanta Bangla Press, Bongaon, North 24 Parganas, PIN- 743235, and Printed at : Ramkrishna Press, Bongaon.

Once Akbar wanted to test hiscoutiers. He put a question toall of them.Akbar asked "Whatis the thing that travels fastestin the world?"

One of the courtiers said "Bul-lock cart". Another said " wind".Yet another said "Light".

Akbar was waiting for Birbal'sanswer. Birbal said "Your maj-esty! The thoughts in the mindare the fastest to travel.In a mo-ment you are in this court andyour next thought can be any-where else in this world. So,thought is the fastest thing inthe world."

Birbal the WiseStudents’ English World8 Month : August, 2013

Many years ago, according tothe stories told by the people ofancient Greece, there lived twobrothers who were not like other

men, or like the gods and god-desses of Mount Olympus. Theywere the sons of one of the Titanswho had fought against Zeus andbeen sent in chains to the prisonof the Lower World.

The name of the elder of thesebrothers was Prometheus (whichmeans Forethought). Prometheuswas always thinking of the futureand making things ready for whatmight happen tomorrow, or nextweek, or next year, or even in ahundred years time.

Prometheus did not want tolive amongst the clouds on MountOlympus. While the gods werespending their time in idleness,drinking nectar and eating ambro-sia, he was planning how to makethe world wiser and better than ithad ever been before.

So instead of living onOlympus, Prometheus went outamongst men to live with them andhelp them .He found them livingin caves and in holes of the earth,shivering with the cold becausethere was no fire, dying of starva-tion, hunted by wild beasts andby one another-the most miserableof all living creatures.

"If they only had fire," saidPrometheus to himself, "theycould at least warm themselvesand cook their food; and after a

Greek Mythologyslowly. Prometheus hurried backto his own land, carrying with himthe precious spark hidden in thehollow center of the plant.

When he reached home, hecalled some of the shiveringpeople from their caves and builta fire for them, and showed themhow to warm themselves by it anduse it to cook their food. Men andwomen gathered round the fire andwere warm and happy, and thank-ful to Prometheus for the wonder-ful gift which he had brought tothem.

One chilly winter evening,Zeus gazed down from MountOlympus and noticed fires burn-ing cheerfully at the hearths of

men and women in every villageacross the land. It did not takehim long to realize that Prometheushad disobeyed him and given fireto men.

Zeus was very angry and or-dered that Prometheus be chainedto the side of a mountain to sufferthere for all eternity. And therePrometheus stayed, thinking of thefuture, happy in the knowledgethat he had given fire to men untilhe was one day rescued by Her-cules, the mortal son of Zeus.

Everyone was very surprisedat Birbal's wisdom. Akbar wasproud of Birbal's wisdom andrewarded him suitably.

There was a proud Coconuttree in the forest. He was tall andstrong. There was a small herb nextto the tree. The Coconut tree said,"I am very handsome and strong.No one can defeat me". Hearingthis the herb replied, "Dear friend,too much pride is harmful. Eventhe strong will fall one day".

The Coconut ignored theherb's words. He continuedto praise himself.A strongwind blew. The Coconutstood firmly. Even when itrained, the Coconut stood

Strong or Weakstrong by spreading its leaves.Atthe same time, the herb bowedlow. The Coconut made fun of theherb. One day there was a stormin the forest. The herb bowed low.As usual the Coconut did notwant to bow. The storm kept grow-ing stronger. The coconut couldno longer bear it. He felt hisstrength giving way. He fell down.

This was the end of the proud tree.When everything was calm theherb stood straight. He lookedaround. He saw the proud Coco-nut had fallen.

1. goanr2. uresn3. moderef4. ownk5. ehgu6. sogpis7. gilfny8. sietiexqu9. niveid10. seacu

To know the answersread our next issue

Re-arrange theLetters forNew Words

� India is the largest democracyin the world.

� India is the birthplace ofchess. The original word for“chess” is the Sanskritchaturanga, meaning “fourmembers of an army”—which were mostly likelyelephants, horses, chariots,and foot soldiers.

� India has the largest postalnetwork in the world.

Never ForgetRIDDLES

1. sun 2. rainbow 3. umbrella

4. monkey 5. candle

WORD PUZZLE-1

ACROSS : 2. hair 4. eat 5. duck

6. nose 8. yellow

DOWN : 1. fingers 3. pot

5. door 7. eye 9. leg

REARRANGE LETTERS

1.mushroom 2.poisonous 3.princi-pal 4.river 5.syllable 6.prayer8.humane 9. express 10 .clothes

ANSWERSOF ISSUE-I