11th-Hornbill, Main Points-Chapters wise

 

1. The Portrait of a Lady (Khushwant Singh)

Main Points of the Chapter

·    The child Khushwant Singh lived in the village with his grandmother because his parents had gone to the city.

·    She was a very old woman. Her face was full of wrinkles.

·    She was fat and short. Her hair was white like snow. She had stoop in her body.

·    She was always dressed in white

·    The school was attached to a temple. While the writer studies there; the grandmother prayed in the temple.

·    On the way, she fed the village dogs with stale chapattis.

·    When they shifted to the city, Khushwant Singh joined an English school.

·    Then the author went abroad for five years.

·    His grandmother passed most of her time in prayer and feeding the sparrows.

·    When he came back, the grandmother became very happy.

·    She collected the women of the neighbourhood. She beat on an old drum and started singing for long time.

·    But next morning she fell ill and died.

·    Even the sparrows whom she used to feed were sad at her death.

·    The writer’s mother threw the, bread crumbs. But they did not eat them.

2. We’re not afraid to die … If We Can All Be Together (Gordon Cook and Alan East)

Main Points of the Chapter

·      In this story narrator who is a businessman decided to round the world voyage.

·      He took same route which was taken by Captain James Cook 200 years ago.

·      For it he made a boat which name was ‘Wavewalker’.

·      It was 23 meter and 30 ton beautiful wooden boat.

·      He started his journey in July 1976, his wife Mary, his 7 year daughter Sue and 6 year son Jon were also with him.

·      The writer hoped to complete his journey in 3 years which was 255,000k.m.

·      The first of their journey had passed pleasantly up to Cape Town which was 105,000k.m.

·      Here the writer took 2 sailors named Larry Vigil (American) and Herb Seigler (Swiss) with him.

·      The second phase of the journey was 150,000k.m, which was to be completed on reaching Australia.

·      On 25^th the writer’s Wavewalker was in southern Indian Ocean, 3500k.m. to Cape Town.

·      They celebrated first day of the New Year (1977) in the ship.

·      But on 2^nd January the weather suddenly became very terrible. The waves were very big.

·      The ship was caught in the stormy sea for three days.

·      The ship was badly damaged. The ship could go down into the sea any time.

·      But they showed courage, and survived the storm.

·      Jon said, ‘Daddy, we are not afraid to die.., if we call all be together.

·      On evening of 6^th January, they reached on a tiny island Amsterdam.

·      It was 65k.m. wide and there lived on 28 people. They welcomed the writer and his group.

3. Discovery Tut: The Saga Continues (A.R. Williams)

Main points of the Chapter:

·      Amenhotep III, Tut’s father or grandfather, was a powerful pharaoh.

·      His son Amenhotep promoted the worship of the Aten, the sun disk.

·      He changed his name to Akhenaten or ‘servant of the Aten.

·      He discontinued the worship of Amun, a major God.

·      He smashed his images and closed his temples.

·      After his death, a mysterious ruler named Smenkhkare ruled and after him King Tut.

·      Tut was the last heir of a powerful family of Egypt.

·      He was teenager when he died 3300 years ago.

·      After his death, according to Egyptian customs, his body was preserved as a mummy with valuable things so that he could get comfort in the next world as razor, undergarments, food and wine.

·      His body was put into a golden coffin and buried in the ‘Valley of the Kings’ in Egypt.

·      His tomb was discovered in 1922 by archaeologists.

·      Scientists decided to perform a CT scan on his mummy to find out the cause of his death.

·      So on 5^th Jan 2005, a CT scan was done on his mummy.

·      Here the writer describes the results of that investigation.

4. Landscape of the Soul (Nathalie Trouveroy)

Main points of the Chapter:

·      In this chapter contains two essays written by two different writers on the topic of art.

·      In the first piece, Nathalie Trouveroy praises the Chinese art.

·      He compares the European art with the Asian art.

·      In Europe, the art aims at giving a perfect illusionistic likeness.

·      In Asia the art presents the inner life and spirit.

·      The second part of this chapter deals with the outsider art.

·      In the first part of the chapter, the writer tells an old tale about an eighth century painter, Wu Daozi.

·      He made last painting, as Chinese Tang Emperor Xuanzong wanted a landscape to decorate a wall in his palace.

·      He made a beautiful painting to decorate the palace wall.

·      It had forest, high mountains, waterfalls, clouds floating in the sky men on hilly paths and birds in flight.

·      The painter showed the Emperor a cave at the foot of the mountain in the painting.

·      The painter clapped his hands and the mouth of the cave opened.

·      As soon as the painter went inside, the entrance closed behind him.

·      The painting also vanished from the wall.

·      The story teaches us a lesson that an Emperor may rule the world but only the artist knows the inner world.

·      That is why the painter was able to enter the cave, but not the Emperor.

·      The writer tells another story. In 15^th century Antwerp, there was a blacksmith, Quinten Metsys.

·      He fell in love with the daughter of a famous painter. But painter did not want to accept a blacksmith as his son-in-law.

·      One day, Quinten made a fly which looked so real, when painter came, he tried to swat it.

·      When he came to know of the truth, he admitted Quinten as his apprentice as well as his son-in-law.

·      The second part of the chapter is written by Brinda Suri.

·      It is about the ‘Outsider Art’ and ‘Art Brut’ or ‘Raw Art’

·      The art by those who have no formal training in art. Yet they show their talent.

·      The notion of ‘art brut’ or ‘raw art’ was mooted by French painter Jean Dubuffet.

·      The best example of ‘outsider art’ is the rock garden created by Nek Chand in Chandigarh.

5. The Ailing Planet: The Green Movement’s Role (Nani Palkhivala)

Main points of the Chapter:

·      In this chapter, the writer underlines the damage man has done to the planet by men.

·      He has destroyed forests, fisheries, grasslands and croplands.

·      The destruction of forests had led to the extinction of many wild species.

·      The rapidly increasing population is responsible for the depletion of natural resources.

·      More children do not mean more work. It means more people with no work.

·      In the words of Lester Brown, “We have not inherited this earth from our forefathers

·      We have borrowed it from our children. We must return it to them in good condition.

·      The Green movement was started in 1972 in New Zealand to preserve our environment.

·      In the Zoo at Lusaka (Zambia), there is a mirror in the cage but no animal.

·      When we see our picture in the mirror, we find that only we are the most dangerous animal to destroy the environment.

6. The Browning Version (Terence Rattigan)

Main points of the Chapter:

·      This play is an extract from Terence Rattigan’s play, ‘The Browning Version’.

·      Taplow is a boy of sixteen who has been waiting for his master Crocker-Harris.

·      He has been given extra work to do because he had been ill for a long day during the week and missed the class.

·      His master, Mr. Crocker-Harris, has told him that he would come at 6.30 to see the work.

·      It is already 6.40 and Mr. Crocker-Harris has not come yet.

·      Another teacher named Frank comes there.

·      He tells Taplow that he should go because Mr. Crocker-Harris has not arrived so far.

·      He encourages Taplow to make fun of MR. Crocker –Harris.

·      In the end, Millie (Mr. Croker-Harris’s wife) comes there.

·      She says that her husband has gone somewhere.

·      She asks Taplow to go and play until Mr. Crocker-Harris comes.

·      But Taplow does not want to displease his master.

·      Then Millie asks Taplow to go to the chemist to get some medicine for her.

·      Clearly, her chief purpose is not to get the medicine, but to help the poor boy enjoy freedom for some time.

7. The Adventure (Jayant Narlikar)

Main points of the Chapter:

·      The writer wants to prove that sometimes, a person’s mind may go into the past.

·      Professor Gangadharpant Gaitonde is a professor of History.

·      He has given a number of lectures on different history topics.

·      The next lecture that he has to give is on the battle of Panipat.

·      In this battle, Ahmad Shah Abdali had won and the Marathas had lost the battle.

·      Prof. Gaitonde is thinking if the Marathas had won the battle; the course of Indian history would have been different.

·      Two days before the date fixed for the lecture, he meets with an accident.

·      As a result, his mind goes back into the past.

·      When the story starts, his mind is already in the past.

·      He is travelling in a train from Pune to Bombay.

·      He goes to the library of the Asiatic Society.

·      He wants to understand the riddle of history.

·      He asks the librarian to give him some history books.

·      In the first four volumes the events of history are exactly as he knows.

·      But in the fifth volume, history had taken a different turn.

·      In that book he finds that the Marathas won the battle handsomely.

·      His friend Rajendra Deshpande, a scientist helps him and brings his mind to the present.

8. Silk Road (Nick Middleton)

Main points of the Chapter:

·      In this chapter, the writer gives a description of his journey to Mount Kailash.

·      He takes the same route that was known as the Silk Route or the Silk Road in ancient times.

·      It was a trade route that linked China with the West.

·      It starts from Sian (China) and ending at the Mediterranean Sea.

·      By this route, silk came westward while wool, gold, silver Christianity and Buddhism went eastward.

·      Their journey start from Ravu (a small mountain village) to Darchen  (at the foot of Mount Kailash)

·      There a lady, Lhamo, gave him a long-sleeved sheepskin coat as  a present.

·      Then they passed the dark tents of nomads.

·      A Tibetan Mastiff, a huge dong, guarded each tent.

·      His taxi driver, Tsetan, who had brought him all the way from Lhasa went back after dropping him at Darchen.

·      By the afternoon the writer reached the small town of Hor.

·      Hor is on the shor of Lake Manasarovar.

·      This lake as the source of four great rivers: The Indus, The Ganges, The Sutlej and the Brahmaputra.

·      Here at Darchen, he suffered a severe cold.

·      The next morning, Tsetan took him to the Darchen Medical College.

·      Then Tsetan left him at Darchen and returned to Lhasa.

·      Then the writer met Norbu in a café, who knew English.

·      The author had heard a lot about the beauty of Lake Mansarovar and the holy pilgrimage to Mount Kailash.

·      But he found the place very dirty and uninspiring.