After Reconstruction, why were a number of lawsuits filed against theaters, hotels, and other public places? African Americans had been unfairly denied access to them. African American workers had been paid less than other workers. African American customers had been charged more than others. African Americans had been denied jobs in those businesses.
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Answer:
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was the author of
Gitanjali and its ‘profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful
verse’. He became the first non-European to win the
Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913.
This poem is one of his vastly read and discussed
poems. It was originally composed in Bengali and later
he himself translated it into English. This poem is from
his Nobel Prize winning anthology ‘Gitanjali’.
Tagore lived during the time when India was ruled by
the British. In this poem, besides political freedom from
British, Tagore also appeals to God for social, educational
and economic freedom for the people of India.
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by Thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
- Rabindranath Tagore
I was still a thief when I met Anil. And though
only 15, I was an experienced and fairly successful
hand.
Anil was watching a wrestling match when I
approached him. He was about 25 — a tall, lean
fellow — and he looked easy-going, kind and simple
enough for my purpose. I hadn’t had much luck of
late and thought I might be able to get into the young
man’s confidence.
“You look a bit of a wrestler yourself,” I said. A
little flattery helps in making friends.
“So do you,” he replied, which put me off for a
moment because at that time I was rather thin.
“Well,” I said modestly, “I do wrestle a bit.”
“What’s your name?”
“Hari Singh,” I lied. I took a new name every
month. That kept me ahead of the police and my
former employers.
After this introduction, Anil talked about the welloiled wrestlers who were grunting, lifting and throwing
each other about. I didn’t have much to say. Anil
walked away. I followed casually.
“Hello again,” he said.
I gave him my most appealing smile. “I want to
work for you,” I said.
“But I can’t pay you.”
I thought that over for a minute. Perhaps I had
misjudged my man.
l flattery : insincere
praise
l modestly : without
boasting, in a humble
way
l grunting : making
low guttural sounds
l appealing :
attention-getting
attractive
u What is the narrator
quite successful at?
u Who does ‘I’ refer to
in this story ?
u Why did the narrator
change his name
every month ?
Ruskin Bond (1934) is an Indian author of British
descent. He lives with his adopted family in Landour in
Mussoorie, India, The Indian Council for Child Education
has recognised his role in the growth of children’s literature
in India. He got the Sahitya Academy Award in 1992
for ‘Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra’, for his published
work in English. He was awarded the ‘Padmashri’ in
1999 and ‘Padmabhushan’ in 2014.
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I asked, “Can you feed me?”
“Can you cook?”
“I can cook,” I lied again.
“If you can cook, then may be I can feed you.”
He took me to his room over the Jumna Sweet
Shop and told me I could sleep in the balcony. But
the meal I cooked that night must have been terrible
because Anil gave it to a stray dog and told me to
be off. But I just hung around, smiling in my most
appealing way, and he couldn’t help laughing.
Later, he patted me on the head and said never
mind, he’d teach me to cook. He also taught me to
write my name and said he would soon teach me
to write whole sentences and to add numbers.