Love- The Miracle Worker

In the next article, Ritika Alexander talks about how the power of love can work miracles in our lives:

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails” -1 Corinthians 13:4.

This four letter word has more depth than the Pacific Ocean and has had plays, songs and stories written on it more than anything else in the world. Khaled Hosseini set out to write an extraordinary love story- 'A Thousand Splendid Suns'.

This is the tale of Mariam, a fifteen year old girl who is forced to marry Rasheed. Nearly two decades later, a friendship grows between her and a local teenager, Laila, as strong as the ties between mother and daughter. When the Taliban takes over, life becomes a desperate struggle against starvation, brutality and fear.

Love in its various forms acts as a major facilitator of interpersonal relationships and, owing to its importance as a genre, is one of the most common themes in the creative arts. Such is the work of Hosseini in this literary endeavor. What keeps this novel vivid and irresistible is his eye for the textures of daily life and his ability to portray a full range of human emotions.

Love is such an emotion capitalized in the novel. ‘A thousand splendid suns’ is a narrative that highlights the plight of Afghan women and their fate. But it is also a heartfelt saga that encompasses romance and melodrama, personal and political intrigue.

Love is very often conformed to the Shakespearean cliché Romeo and Juliet or even violins playing in the background if taken the Indian movies perspective. What we miss out on is the love that is found between anything with a soul like two siblings, two friends or as in the case of A Thousand Splendid Suns, the soul-stirring connection between two victimized women.

“Mariam was five years old when she first heard the word ‘harami-illegitimate’ from her nana only because her nana’s precious china slipped from Mariam’s fingers and shattered on the floor.”

Mariam only received such reactions from her mom filled with loathing and who never failed to remind her every day that she was unwanted. It was true such violent streaks bore roots in her nana when Mariam’s father, Jalil, abandoned them. Since then Mariam is adored once a week by her father whom she has to share with nine other legitimate children she is unfamiliar with. Even after the ungodly suicide of her nana, her father had little to say while his platoon of wives refused to have her in the house and so married her off to an elderly widower. Such is the childhood of Mariam whose womanhood also deteriorates into endurance when subject to cruelty from Rasheed.

In a parallel universe, Laila is a beautiful and intelligent girl coming from a family in which the father is university-educated and a teacher. Compared to Mariam, Laila "had a much more fulfilling relationship with her father, her girlfriends and her childhood friend, Tariq.” But her life suddenly turns topsy-turvy when she finds herself orphaned and married to Rasheed, no questions asked.

Mariam and Laila end up on the same doorstep but under very different circumstances where Mariam was unloved and abandoned while Laila was loved but orphaned.

 This created initial feeling of resentment in Mariam who "felt her territory infringed upon" and thought history was repeating itself when old fears of being unwanted resurfaced, her prolonged history with abandonment to be blamed.

 But like Mariam, who was unable to bear children, Laila too disappoints Rasheed when she gives birth to a daughter and becomes a target for his cruelty.

 “And in the fleeting wordless exchange with Mariam, Laila knew that they were not enemies any longer.”

Laila and Mariam thereon developed a rapport making them inseparable, all due to Mariam's childlessness and the struggles and abuse they both face during the marriage.

Love in this context maybe understood as part of a survival instinct, a function to keep human beings together against menace. The unhappy household only created the conditions for the birth of a friendship so strong, a union as close as any marriage.

Mariam’s killing of Rasheed calls for severe punishment which Mariam takes upon herself to steer any attention on Laila away and in a way fulfils her duty as an alternative doting mother to Laila. Mariam’s selflessness to provide a better life for Laila laid the foundation for the ultimate sacrifice ever made in the history of love. Such is the power of love, tragic and heart-breaking yet so touching you would want to be a statue to not be moved by this story.

Love can move people to act in unexpected ways and lead them to overcome the most daunting obstacles with startling heroism.

In Titanic Jack wishes Rose to move on with her life. Similarly Laila remains indebted to the memory of Mariam but moves on with her life just how Mariam would have wanted her too. Laila later becomes a teacher and settles down with Tariq making a life for herself not letting Mariam’s sacrifice go in vain.

‘But the naming game for her unborn child involved only male names. Because if it’s a girl Laila has already named her.”

Love may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you consider the war-ravaged landscape of Afghanistan. But that is the emotion-powerful and infinitely patient that suffuses the pages. This is a novel that bears testament to the power of love. A riveting read that explores sacrifices necessary to sustain hope and the power of love that can jerk tears from even the coldest of hearts.

In Hosseini’s words -“I couldn’t think of a more convincing idea than that of a mother’s love, for no love surpasses that of a mother’s. Every other topic paled in comparison. This is the labour of my love and I hope it doesn’t sound too pretentious if I say that I think of it as my modest tribute to the genre love whose power can move mountains and work wonders.”

Women Empowerment

In the third article of the Symposium, Deeksha Muralidhar enlightens us on how the value of ‘women empowerment’ is portrayed through the novel ‘Little Women’:

“For most of history, Anonymous was a woman.” Little Women, published in 1868 was one of the most influential books of the time. The plot veered from the traditional adventurous plots and stories, with males as central characters. The book deals with a number of themes such as domesticity, work and love but one of the most important themes of the book is women empowerment. The book with women as all of its major characters, caused the normalization of ambitious women in the American middle class.

The story revolves around four sisters and their mother, trying to build their lives and make ends meet after their father went off to war. Each of them is talented in their own way. Meg, the oldest earns money by working as a governess. Jo is an incredibly talented writer, Beth, helps in domestic duties and Amy is an artist. As the girls grow up, they are forced to adopt social norms and behave ladylike, something all the sisters dreaded especially Jo, being the tomboy of the family, as they did not want to give up their individuality and their families to get married, as was expected in the society.  The book introduced concepts such as a democratic household which were previously unheard of in middle class American society and encouraged domestic reform. This liberated the women of the 19^th century as they no longer had to be a victim of gender stereotyping by the society and carry out gender specific duties. Instead, women began to alter their daily routines and no longer had to do all the housework. They started venturing out in the world of employment and started carving out a name for themselves in the previously male – dominated world.  The author made the basic rights of women a very important part of her plot thus allowing young girls to dream to do something different and allowed them to build their own lives and futures instead of being a passive part of the society and depending on men. Louisa May Alcott believed that women can be successful and can make their way in the world even by staying away from the social arrangements and that by starting from the roots and having gender equality in the domestic sphere, democratic households would eventually lead to a feminist society, ensuring that women get all the basic rights that men enjoy.  

In the book, Mrs. March is portrayed as a brave and strong willed woman as she manages to make ends meet and care for all of her four children with limited resources, while her husband was away at war. Despite all of the financial troubles her family faces, Mrs. March still manages to help people with worse living conditions. Through this character, Alcott describes utopian women, who are independent and can manage families without help from men. Alcott challenged the preconceived notion existing in those days that women could not manage families as well as practice a vocation and earn money to support their families. It was believed that women should be restricted to the domestic sphere, a practice that Alcott tried to change by the means of her novels. Meg, the oldest sister is portrayed as conventional and good. She tries to change herself and follow the social practices to please other people in the process sacrificing her identity. She gives up her girlish weakness for luxury and money and marries a poor man, thus following the conventional social practices, became an agreeable housewife. Through this character, the author describes how the young girls of the 19^th century gave up their identities and followed customs and practices put forward by the society no matter how much they wanted to retain their individuality and remain independent. Girls usually agreed to this so that they would not be excluded from the social circles for not adhering to its principles. Jo, the second oldest sister is portrayed as an exact opposite of how girls were supposed to behave in the 19^th century. She is tomboyish and has a passion for writing. Women tried to respond to the ideas of social changes within the familiar construct of domesticity while some rebelled and wanted drastical improvements to their lives, which I believe was instrumental in creating the strong-willed free women of the 21^st century.

Meg and Beth conform to the traditional expectations of society, Amy and Jo initially attempt to break free from these constraints and try to develop their individual abilities and talents but eventually both get married and settle into a more customary life. Jo even gave up her writing and loses her headstrong independence. However, at first,  she struggled to live a family and a meaningful professional life. Through this, Alcott proves the strong expectations and stereotypes that existed in the 19^th century. Women, no matter how successful or talented they are individually, everyone were eventually coerced into molding themselves according to the society’s rules. Alcott compares the more realistic model of womanhood versus the unrealistic, by highlighting the different aspects of the lives of the four sisters. Women had to emphasize on domestic duties and family thus leaving very little time for them, to grow personally and professionally.

19^th century was a particularly difficult time for women to thrive socially. When Alcott wrote the novel, it was the time when women’s status in society was slowly increasing, thus progressing toward gender equality. It centers on the conflict between two most important things in a woman’s life. Through the four sisters Alcott tries to explore how women dealt with the constraints of social expectations. The novel also questions gender stereotypes and in many instances portrays traditional gender expectations being reversed. She states the importance of work, not only as a source of income but also to create happiness through proper use of time and productivity. Alcott also tries to convey the message of being genuine. Meg and Amy tried to be like their rich friends, pretending to be happy in the presence of wealth, whereas they were quite content and happy with their family and loved ones around them. It is books like these that planted the seed of freedom in the minds of women, causing them to rebel against society. Women were now no longer afraid to dream to move out of the domestic sphere, to live lives as free individuals without social barriers. It inspired young women to have their special individuality and not conform to what the society wanted them to be, by accepting the existing social norms and thus in the process sacrificing a visceral part of themselves. Women, now being a part of a democratic household, could spare time practice a vocation and earn both fame and money. Many factors such as literature instigated them to change their lives and become active citizens, thus trying creating a world where gender specific roles did not exist, something I believe women even in the 21^st century are still trying to achieve. Even girls who were vain and had a weakness for wealth and luxury began changing their mindset and looked at the bigger picture, that is freedom, recognition and empowerment

The Power of Sacrifice

Another article from the Symposium, written by Aaviola Pereira:

Lauren Oliver once said, “I guess that’s just part of loving people: You have to give things up. Sometimes you even have to give them up.” Sacrifice is something which cannot be explained but only carried out.

The best example to understand sacrifice is the way it is displayed in the book ‘My Sister’s Keeper.’

My sister’s keeper is a book of immense sadness and puts before us the harsh and bitter truth about life. It is a book about sisterhood, choices and the sacrifices we have to make in our lives for our friends and family. But in this article we will focus upon the value of sacrifice and how it is displayed throughout the book. 

First let us get to know a gist of the story. The story is about Anna, a 13-year-old girl who is average in every way except for the circumstances of her life. Anna is a genetically engineered baby, designed to be a genetic match for her sister, Kate, who has acute leukaemia. Anna has spent her life giving blood and bone marrow to Kate and is now under pressure to give a kidney. Now Anna wants to sue her parents for the right to her body.  Throughout her life Anna has always had to go to extremes in helping her sister. Anna was not even a year old but just a month when the doctors had carried out an invasive procedure on her. Again, when she was 5, she had to give her bone marrow cells. We see that throughout the book and till the very end Anna had to make sacrifices. It isn’t just Anna who has made sacrifices but Anna’s mother Sara too. We see this in the selfless way Sara has devoted her life to helping Kate get better, in the way she determinately faces everyday with the new challenges it puts forward for Kate as well as her family. Brian, Anna’s dad also shows bravery and selflessness in the way he carries out his day to day activities .Both the parents display absolute love and devotion to the idea of Kate’s survival. Jesse, Anna’s brother is the one who I feel had to make as many sacrifices as Anna for Kate’s sake. Jesse as well as Anna had to sacrifice their childhood and happiness for Kate. 

The way the entire family makes sacrifices for Kate is something to be inspired by. Many families in today’s world fail to forget the essence and importance of family. Many forget that when the rest of the world turns their back on us it is our parents and our brothers and sisters who will always remain. People have forgotten that no matter how we are it will always be our family members who will accept the way we are. Through family alone can the value of sacrifice be learned. Families now fall apart with simple issues but Picoult’s book shows us that even through a horrifying disease like cancer family should always stick together. In the book we also see immense love binding the family. Finally in the end of the book during the trial Anna confesses that she only filed a suit because her sister Kate was ready to die and she did not want to be a burden to anyone. This action of Anna is according to me the biggest sacrifice she had ever made, this is simply because knowing that the whole world would think she filed the case for her selfish reasons and did not care about her sister. But the truth was she did love her sister and was ever willing to be her donor but Kate wanted one last thing out of Anna and Anna willingly accepted although it hurt her immensely to do so.

Finally at the end of the book when Anna dies, her kidney is given to Kate. Although Anna was dead her selfless and never ending love was the reason which kept her alive in everyone’s heart. This story was nothing about a child being forced to donate her kidney but about having choices and how morals are more important than ethics and how love is more important than law.

The point of this book is that the world isn't black or white and that is reflected in the characters. This book argues upon the quality of life versus the sanctity of life. Sacrifice is in the soul of this book and it is displayed in every act of every member of the family and thus we must be like them, selfless, loving and willing to sacrifice.

Literary Symposium '13

On the 18th of September, the students of Grade 11 organized a literary Symposium and participated in it. The topic of the symposium was 'Universal Values in Literary Works'. Congratulations to all the students for speaking eloquently and presenting their individual views well! The articles and speeches from the symposium will be uploaded over the next few days.

The very first article is one by Fatima Shabbir expressing her thoughts on the fictional novel 'The Alchemist' by Paulo Coelho.

Read, Lead, and Succeed

In the wise words of John F Kennedy “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.”  “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho analyses leadership from a different angle. The conventional meaning of leadership is ‘the action of leading a group of people or an organization’. Coelho challenges this popular belief by depicting throughout the book that every ordinary individual is a leader when he/she follows his or her heart. In other words, we are leading ourselves everyday in the journey of life when we listen to our heart and do what we truly believe intrinsically is the right thing to do. 

The young boy of the novel was not an influential person, rather he was just a simple shepherd yet he became the hero in his life when he learned the language of the universe and reciprocated using the language of his heart. He says, “I am learning the language of the world, and everything in the world is beginning to make sense to me...even the flight of the hawks”. Santiago learns to lead himself by seeking inspiration from the wise king, gaining survival strength from the merchant, reading between the lines with the Englishman, experiencing excellence traveling with the alchemist and above all acknowledging the omens of destiny. We all aspire to be leaders, let me relate it to the thrill of anticipation we feel when the prefectural body is announced in school. However, we need not be chosen as leaders to lead, for the Almighty has already made us masters of our own lives and the test of leadership is to lead ourselves on the right path for personal and community development.   In the wise words of the alchemist, “Your heart is alive, listen to it”. Indeed leadership has meant a lot to me but “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho has introduced a new horizon, compelling me to think about leadership from a different perspective.

To Be Remembered

We were born
We were created
We were brought to this place to be elated
To share the suffering and the gains
To achieve fame
Though not through the notes we've attained
But through the artistry and workmanship
We've put in as though we're slaves
Not slaves by force
But with a burning fire; learning from defeat
To conquer those desires
Taking a step forward each day
Not because we were created
But because we are to be remembered.

- A poem by Shreya Khot

Survivors: A Critical Analysis

A very apt analysis of the poem 'Survivors' written by Siegfried Sassoon given by Anaida D'souza:
 
In his poem ‘Survivors’, Siegfried Sassoon gives the readers a satirical and paradoxical take on war and its effect on the soldiers who partake in it. This particular poem was written by Sassoon when he was spending his time in the Craiglockhart hospital where he was forced into convalescence due to his strong portrayal of anti- war emotions. On arriving at the hospital he was diagnosed with neurasthenia and had it not been for the work of his psychologist Dr. Rivers, Sassoon would have paved a tragic path to his self destruction. 

The poem being deliberately contradictory in nature begins by giving the reader a sense of assurance that ‘no doubt they’ll soon get well’ only to be followed by a scathing portrayal of the symptoms of being ‘shell shocked’ wherein the soldiers speak in a disconnected and incoherent manner. In the phrase that follows, he mentions that the soldiers are rather ecstatic about their future return to the war front and he follows it up by giving an exacting and factual take on the situation, wherein these soldiers who were once robust and vigorous men are now learning to walk again implying their predicament and making the readers empathize with them. 

In the consecutive lines, the poet speaks about the soldiers ‘haunted nights and their cowed subjection to the ghosts of friends who died’. This line is highly subjective in nature which holds an underlying reference to the nightmares that plagued Sassoon where he would witness corpses lining the roads in their deceased slumber and summoning him to join in their fate. Visibly shaken after these occurrences, Sassoon often mentioned them in his poems. This also implies the fragile state of mind the soldiers are in, when they come across the ghosts of the friends they lost at war and the guilt of having survived the bloody and gruesome ordeal, which they will carry with themselves to their graves and the cross of existence which bears down on their frames. 

In the second last phrase, Sassoon speaks from a non combatant’s point of view when he says that the soldiers would one day be honored and proud of the war they served in, which only but crushed and shattered their pride. Sassoon ends the poem on a derisive and accusatory note when he says that these fledgling and willing men who headed out to war with a misplaced sense of patriotism now look at us with eyes that are broken and mad, implying an emotionally scarred demeanor. 

This poem is a measured jibe at the non combatants, comprising of politicians and influential personalities in society who glorify the ghastly reality that is war and is an attempt on the poet’s behalf to make known the authentic experience. Riveting and blunt in nature, this poem is one of the finest war poems of all times and has inspired several others to write more graphic renditions of the First World War.

Sky Is The Limit

A truly beautiful poem by Siddhi Shah of grade 11-I :

When you walk a hundred miles, and still see the same old tree,
You think its life’s cruel mocking parody,
Just walk another 100 and you’ll see...
Your destiny’s waiting to set you free-
No road is long, when dreams are big,
And sky is the limit;
When the waves go wild, just tighten your sail,
And you will cross the sea.