Once in a time, nearby the large forest, a poor woodcutter lived with his wife and two children. The son’s name was called Hansel and the daughter was Gretel. The children were always neglected by their step-mother. She didn’t love them and wanted to get rid of them and felt burden because of their presence at the house. There was the scarcity of food and famine in the region, so their father was unable to give food to the children. The step-mother was cruel and unkind to the children. That is why the stepmother made a plan to leave the children in the forest and for that reason she compelled her husband to leave the children in the forest. The children also understood the plan of their parents but didn’t do anything and accepted the bitter reality. They were suffering from hunger. The boy Hansel was very clever and he had gone out at night, filled his pocket with pebbles so as to scatter in the way of their trip to the forests.
One day in the morning, the poor family had begun their trip to forest with the intention to leave the innocent children. Hansel threw the pebbles on the road one by one. When they reached the forest, their father and mother left them were sleeping nearby the fireside. As the children woke up at night, found them alone and their parents had not there, so they waited until the moon rose and followed the road where the pebbles shone like silver pieces. They were able to come in to their house because of the pebbles. Their step-mother was restless to see them but the father was happy. The parents made another plan to leave them into more dense forest and the children had overhead the conversation of their parents but they couldn’t do anything as they were trapped in the room and given some breadcrumbs by the stepmother for the next day and went to a thick forest. But this time Hansel threw the pieces of bread on the road. When the father and mother came back home like before leaving the children in the forest in their deep sleep, the children woke up at night, followed the road but the pieces of bread were not there They missed the road, were tired and fell asleep under a tree. They followed a singing bird when they woke up. They reached a house. The roof of the house was made up of bread and the windows of sugar. The hungry children began to eat the house. An old woman came out from the house. She took them inside the house. They felt that it was heaven. The woman was wicked witch. She wanted to kill and eat them. So she imprisoned Hansel in the stable, gave good food to fatten him. But once, Gretel pushed the woman into the oven and bolted the door of oven and the woman burnt to death. Then Gretel being very happy freed her brother.
The children were extremely excited when they found a lot of pearls and jewels in that house. They put it into their pockets and headed towards the home. But in their way there was a huge body of the water and began singing a son. Then the duck came and rescued them to the side of the river. When they walked a bit more, they knew that the river was familiar and while walking far they had seen their father’s home. They ran and found their father in the home but their step-mother was died. They gave the precious stone, jewels and pearls to their father and lived happily afterwards.
Purgatory
William Butter Yeats
ⓢⓤⓜⓜⓔⓡⓨ:
In this supernatural play, W. B. yeast has expressed his faith on the existence of any supernatural power and life after death. Purgatory is a mythical place the soul of a dead man is purified from his sin to send towards heaven. In Roman Catholic Christianity, when a man dies he goes either to heaven or to hell according to his deeds. If he has done neither good nor bad work, his soul goes to purgatory. It remains as a ghost there until it wouldn’t be purified after punishment. The soul remains in the purgatory until the cycle of crime wouldn’t be stopped in the family.
The boy and his father walk on the moonlight night; they are near a ruined house. Pointing towards the house, the old man describes the past of it. The house used to be occupied by his mother and her husband. The mother of the old man had married with the groom of the stable as soon as she met him. The man later turned out to be a drunkard and gambler. Due to drinking and gambling he emptied everything she had. The mother died during giving birth to him. The father continued his misdeed, which at last resulted into the complete destruction of house. Because of fear-the fear of his son becoming greater than him, he didn't send him to school. When he was sixteen, his father burnt down the house. This situation creates anger in the boy. As a result the old man got killed with a knife. The boy then became a peddler. The old man tells his bastard son that the night is the anniversary of mother's wedding. As he finishes telling his son about the past, a shadow appears to which the man can only see. A little later her husband also appears, and they both proceed towards room. The old man objects to the way they go inside. After the incident is over the boy talks about property he has acquired. The bastard son demands for his share in property of his father, which is denied by him. I arises anger in him. As a result he takes moneybag from his father. A quarrel starts between them; the boy gets killed at last with the knife of the old man. The old man, after it, addresses his mother and claims that he has ended the consequences. He hopes that the soul of m⇨other would be purified.
Q.①. What is the central idea of the play?
⇨In this supernatural play, W. B. yeast has expressed his faith on the existence of any supernatural power and life after death. Purgatory is a mythical place the soul of a dead man is purified from his sin to send towards heaven. In Roman Catholic Christianity, when a man dies he goes either to heaven or to hell according to his deeds. If he has done neither good nor bad work, his soul goes to purgatory. It remains as a ghost there until it wouldn’t be purified after punishment. The soul remains in the purgatory until the cycle of crime wouldn’t be stopped in the family.
Q.②. Why does the old man killed his son? / Why is the old man’s motive in murdering the boy?
⇨ The old man killed his son to stop the cycle of crime. If he wouldn’t kill his son the cycle of crime wouldn’t be stopped. The boy would surely kill the old man and the cycle of crime would be continued. The boy had threatened him that he would kill the old man because he didn’t have given him property and education. The boy’s son would kill him later and the ghosts of his parents would not get salvation. His soul would remain in purgatory as the ghost of his parents. So to stop the cycle of crime, the old man killed his son.
Q.③. “We are always punished for our sins.” Elaborate this statement.
⇨The statement ‘We are always punished for our sins” extracted from Purgatory by W. B. Yeats expresses that any person will be ultimately punished for his/her bad and criminal activities. It means all sinners must be punished and punishment is necessary for all defaulters. Yeats makes the speaker say this so to strengthen his idea about punishment and sinners. It is obviously a spiritual and religious expression towards the bad or sinful works and punishment from god. The speaker accepts the reality that every sinner deserves to be punished. God is not blind to punish everybody randomly. He punished only those who commit sins. It gives also idea that no one should make sins or mistakes. God discriminately punishes the sinners. No sinner is excused in his/her life. That’s why, every spiritual factor of religious belief inspires people to remain sacred and mistake less. And every sinner must be ready to accept any kind of punishment.
-Moti Nissani
Moti Nissani says that the two long term problems are the problems of and deforestation. At the present time these problems have become the great challenge to the whole humanity. Now, the population of the world is increasing rapidly due to the nutrition, modern medicine, lower death rate, modernization and sanitation. Every year, in fact, the world's population grows by more than 80 million people. In every one hour 10,000 people are added to our total population. More people will need more food. To produce more food, we have to cut down the trees. Both town and villages will be over crowed and the quality of life will fall down. The land, water and air will be polluted. The environment will be polluted. At the present time, due to the over population humans have been facing different kinds of diseases like cancer, asthma, hearing loss problem, contract epidemics and so many others. On the other hand, due to deforestation the world is loosing creatures such as salamanders, species of frogs, penguins, dodo etc. Similarly, the deforestation will bring the frightening problems as desertification, depletion of nonrenewable resources (eg: petrol, natural gas, helium), acid rain, loss of wild species and plant, ozone layer depletion and green house effects.
Moti Nissani brings the issue of 1500 world's scientists' World's Scientists Warning to Humanity and the joint statement of U.S. National Academy and Royal Society of London regarding the condition of the present world. They are worried about the present condition of the world. According to the essay, Moti Nissani says that growth rate of population of Nepal is 2.5% because the average Nepali women gives birth to 5 children. In 1951 the population of Nepal was 9 million but less than a half century later the population rose to 21 millions. If this rate is not checked, the total population of Nepal will be doubled in just 28 years. With the overpopulation, Nepal has to face all kinds of problems. Therefore, the future of Nepal seems to be very dark if the population is not controlled in time.
However, there are many remedies to solve these long term problems. We can save our forests by controlling the population and our appetite. Each person should be conscious about the environmental and ecological change. The people should be given education on deforestation and overpopulation. The government should invests lot of money for effective family planning to control the over population. There should be media campaigns to create awareness about the effects of overpopulation and deforestation. The conserver should be awarded. There should be greater efficiency in the use of wood - products and recycling. Reforestation and massive tree plantation can be done in the bare lands. People should smokeless Chulo that needs less fire woods. Moreover, Nissani states that we have to be conscious ourselves. He says that we know how and why to control overpopulation and deforestation but still we are lacking this knowledge to convert in to the reality.
Q.①.Is there anything you can do to help save Nepal’s remaining forest?
⇨ Yes, we can do many things to save remaining forest of Nepal. At first people should be aware about the problems of deforestation and overpopulations. We should educate them about the importance of forest. Government should bring such program for the people. We should prevent over timber factories and control over paper factories. We can use hydro-electricity as fuel instead of firewood. We can start reforestation on the bare hills and where the trees have been cut down. People should smokeless Chulo that needs less fire woods. Moreover, Nissani states that we have to be conscious ourselves. He says that we know how and why to control overpopulation and deforestation buⓣ still we are lacking this knowledge to convert in to the reality.
Q.②.What main problems does the writer discuss in his essay? Or What remedial measures does the writer suggest to overcome them?
⇨The writer discusses about overpopulation and deforestation with their severe consequences in the essay, Two Long Term Problems: Too Many People, Too Few Trees. The writer suggested overcoming them. However the situation could be in improving controlling population and pollution, many factors such as modernization, effective family planning measures equal economic, educational and legal opportunities to woman will help to control the rapid population growth. In order to set this world for our future generation, we must save forest by reducing population pressure on it through effective family planning measures and educating people. We may also save the forest by making effective and strict laws with a provision to impose high tax on wood product and provision of incentive for pressuring forest. There should be a provision in the law to punish severely for destroying forest. Massive reforestation, another effective step will benefit the world in conserving biodiversity, pristine wildness and to minimize desertification, flood and weather extremes. By controlling population and saving forest, we may solve this planet for our future generation utilizing our knowledge to convert our wisdom, courage and passion into practice to turn this world into a heaven.
Q.3.What is wrong in Nissani’s view with treeless in Nepal?Or According to the writer, what’s wrong with treeless in Nepal?
⇨The writer expresses his concern about deforestation crisis in Nepal. Showing devastating effecting of deforestation in Nepal, the writer makes us conscious about the importance of preservation of forest. According to him, destruction of forest in Nepal will cause soil erosion in every rainfall. The eroded soil will be deposited in the rivers making them shallow and gradually causing siltation of rivers and dams. After the deforestation, every heavy rainfall is likely to cause devastating flood in plains of Nepal, India and Bangladesh. The destruction of forest in turn contributes to greenhouse effect irresponsible (that can’t be repair) loss of many thousands species of animals and plants, landslides, draught and weather extremes. Therefore, besides causing serious flood in Nepal, India and Bangladesh deforestation in Nepal in the long run will also damage the quality of life and the ability of Biosphere to sustain life.