Tag Archives: thomas hardy

INTERESTING FACTS FIGURES & QUOTES-33

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4000 Drops of water makes a litre of water—So save every drop.

Thomas hardy’s admonition—“Take care of the small things and the big things will take care of themselves.”

A 2017 report of the Travel and Tourism Council says that tourism contributed 9% to India’s GDP and 8% to its total employment.

Industry data suggests that 65% of foreign travelers to India only visit six ASI monuments. We have around 3,000 such monuments that equally deserve tourist footfalls in droves.

According to 2017 data, the number of foreign tourists in India, remain low, at 10.5 million, but domestic numbers, are huge at 1652 million, and growing steadily. However, policies are formulated, keeping in mind, only inbound tourists.

Repo rate is the rate at which RBI lends to its clients generally against government securities. Reverse repo rate is the rate at which RBI borrows money from the commercial banks.

IMF recently lowered its growth forecast for India in 2019 to 7.0%. But what should bother India’s economic policy makers is that this year every successive revision has been downward.

The fallout of US-China trade friction has allowed Vietnam to attract more direct investment from companies. India should grab this opportunity while it lasts. To do so, government should reverse the policy of the last couple of years where protectionism has been used to help domestic companies.

Economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidise it—Ronald Reagan

No nation has sustained growth rates of 9-10% for two or more decades without succeeding in global markets. China’s share in global merchandise exports rose from 2% in 1991 to 12.4% in 2012. These two decades saw China fully transform from a primarily, agrarian economy to a modern industrial economy.

A strong rupee keeps imports artificially cheap for citizens and exports artificially expensive for foreigners.

The Shinkansen HSR (high speed railways) was launched in Japan in 1964. Shinkansen trains perhaps have the best safety record in HSR. Another country, with a quick HSR roll out is china which has developed, about 22,000 km of HSR since 2007-08.

Japanese exports to India rose from Rs 22,900 crore in 2005 to Rs 57,800 crore in 2015, and as of today about 1,305 Japanese companies have branches in India.

Mumbai-Delhi is one of the busiest air corridors of the world.

In the absence of actual knowledge, God is different for different persons and for the same person, different on different occasions.

When your methods are doubtful, said Mahatma, you cannot get good ends.

Well known sci-fi author Ron Hubbard once said, ‘If you really want to make big money, you should start a religion.’

In July 2017 Facebook announced a 71% increase in global profits. And India is one of its fastest growing markets. A lot of its success is well deserved and users now spend an average of 50 minutes a day on its platforms.

India has 11,000 skill training institutes while china has 500,000. Not surprising, only about 2% in the age group 15-59 in India have some skill training.

You can stop speaking to someone, but you cannot stop being related—BURMESE PROVERB

George Patton Jr once said, “I don’t measure man’s success by how high he climbs, but how high he bounces back when he hits the bottom.”

A commonly quoted aphorism says, ‘New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.’

From the play … Julius Caesar—‘the fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves, that we are underlings.’

Society is never interested in religion because religion is individual and society is always afraid of individuals—Osho

India is very important because of its size. So for the world to do well, we need India to do well.

By Kamlesh Tripathi

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https://kamleshsujata.wordpress.com

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Shravan Charity Mission is an NGO that works for poor children suffering from life threatening diseases especially cancer. Our posts are meant for our readers that includes both children and adults and it has a huge variety in terms of content. We also accept donations for our mission. Should you wish to donate for the cause. The bank details are given below:

NAME OF ACCOUNT: SHRAVAN CHARITY MISSION

Account no: 680510110004635 (BANK OF INDIA)

IFSC code: BKID0006805

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Our publications

GLOOM BEHIND THE SMILE

(The book is about a young cancer patient. Now archived in 7 prestigious libraries of the US, including, Harvard University and Library of Congress. It can also be accessed in MIT through Worldcat.org. Besides, it is also available for reading in Libraries and archives of Canada and Cancer Aid and Research Foundation Mumbai)  

ONE TO TANGO … RIA’S ODYSSEY

(Is a book on ‘singlehood’ about a Delhi girl now archived in Connemara Library, Chennai and Delhi Public Library, GOI, Ministry of Culture, Delhi)

AADAB LUCKNOW … FOND MEMORIES

(Is a fiction written around the great city of Nawabs—Lucknow. It describes Lucknow in great detail and also talks about its Hindu-Muslim amity. That happens to be its undying characteristic. The book was launched in Lucknow International Literary Festival of 2014)

REFRACTIONS … FROM THE PRISM OF GOD

(Co-published by Cankids–Kidscan, a pan India NGO and Shravan Charity Mission, that works for Child cancer in India. The book is endorsed by Ms Preetha Reddy, MD Apollo Hospitals Group. It was launched in Lucknow International Literary Festival 2016)

TYPICAL TALE OF AN INDIAN SALESMAN

(Is a story of an Indian salesman who is, humbly qualified. Yet he fights his ways through unceasing uncertainties to reach the top. A good read not only for salesmen. The book was launched on 10th February, 2018 in Gorakhpur Lit-Fest. Now available in Amazon, Flipkart and Onlinegatha)

RHYTHM … in poems

(Published in January 2019. The book contains 50 poems. The poems describe our day to day life. The book is available in Amazon, Flipkart and Onlinegatha)

(ALL THE ABOVE TITLES ARE AVAILABLE FOR SALE IN AMAZON, FLIPKART AND OTHER ONLINE STORES OR YOU COULD EVEN WRITE TO US FOR A COPY)

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THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE by Thomas Hardy

Copyright@shravancharitymission

 

THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE

By Thomas Hardy

Khidki (Window)

–Read India Initiative—

This is only an attempt to create interest in reading. We may not get the time to read all the books in our lifetime. But such reviews, talk and synopsis will at least convey what the book is all about

    At a country fair near Casterbridge in the fictional county of Wessex Michael Henchard, a 21 year old hay-trusser, (person who makes bundles of hay) argues with his wife Susan. Drunk on rum-laced furmity (thick boiled grain dish) he auctions her off, along with his baby daughter Elizabeth-Jane, to Richard Newson, a passing sailor, for five guinneas. Sober the next day, he is too late to recover his family. When he realises they are gone, he swears never to touch liquor again for as many years as he has lived so far.

    Eighteen years later, Henchard has become a successful grain merchant and even the Mayor of Casterbridge, known for his staunch sobriety. Henchard has avoided explaining the circumstances of the loss of his wife, allowing people to assume he is a widower.

    On a visit to Jersey on business, Henchard falls in love with Lucetta Le Sueur, who nurses him back to health after an illness. Although Henchard never tells Lucetta exactly how he “lost” his wife, he does tell her he has a wife who is probably dead, but who may return. Besotted, Lucetta develops a relationship with him despite the risk. Henchard returns to Casterbridge, leaving Lucetta to face the social consequences of their fling.

    To rejoin polite society Lucetta would have to marry him, although Henchard is already technically married. Yet just as Henchard is about to send for Lucetta, Susan unexpectedly appears in Casterbridge with her daughter, Elizabeth-Jane. Newson appears to have been lost at sea, and without means to earn an income Susan is looking to Henchard again. Susan believed for a long time that her “marriage” to Newson was perfectly legitimate. Only recently, just before Newson’s disappearance, had Susan begun to question whether or not she was still legally married to Henchard.

    Just as Susan and Elizabeth-Jane arrive in town, a Scotsman, Donald Farfrae, is passing through on his way to America. He has experience as a grain and corn merchant, and is on the cutting edge of agricultural science. He befriends Henchard and helps him out of a bad financial situation by giving him some timely advice. Henchard persuades him to stay and offers him a job as his corn factor, (trader in grains) rudely dismissing a man named Jopp to whom he had already offered the job. Hiring Farfrae is a stroke of business genius for Henchard, who, although hardworking, is not well-educated.

    To preserve appearances, Henchard sets Susan up in a nearby house, pretends to court her, and remarries her. Both Henchard and Susan keep the truth from Elizabeth-Jane. Henchard also keeps Lucetta a secret. He writes to her, informing her that their marriage is off.

    Henchard’s relationship with Farfrae deteriorates as Farfrae becomes more popular than Henchard. Eventually they part company and Farfrae sets himself up as an independent merchant. The rivalry and jealousy for the most part is one-sided, and Farfrae conducts himself with scrupulous honesty and fair dealing. Henchard meanwhile makes increasingly aggressive, risky business decisions that put him in financial danger.

    Henchard’s jealousy leads him to oppose a marriage between Farfrae and Elizabeth-Jane, until after Susan’s death, at which point Henchard learns he is not Elizabeth-Jane’s father from a letter which Susan, on her deathbed, marked to be opened only after Elizabeth-Jane’s marriage. His own daughter had died in infancy; this second Elizabeth-Jane is Newson’s daughter. Henchard is no longer concerned about blocking the marriage, but he conceals the secret from Elizabeth-Jane and grows cold and cruel towards her.

    In the meantime, Lucetta arrives from Jersey and purchases a house in Casterbridge. She has inherited money from a wealthy relative. Initially she hopes to resume their relationship, but propriety requires that they wait a while. She takes Elizabeth-Jane into her household as a companion, thinking it will give Henchard an excuse to come to visit, not knowing of Henchard’s hatred of Elizabeth-Jane.

    Farfrae visits Lucetta’s house to see Elizabeth-Jane and falls for Lucetta, not knowing she has come to marry Henchard. Lucetta is also attracted to Farfrae. At the same time, she begins to question Henchard’s character, when it becomes public knowledge that he sold his first wife. Although initially reluctant, Henchard decides that he wants to marry Lucetta, particularly since he is in financial trouble – he believes that his creditors would extend credit if he was about to be married to a wealthy woman. Frustrated by her stalling, Henchard bullies Lucetta into agreeing to marry him. But by this point she is in love with Farfrae, and they run away one weekend to get married. She does not tell Henchard until well after the fact. Henchard’s credit collapses, he goes bankrupt, and has to sell all his personal possessions to pay creditors.

    Farfrae buys Henchard’s old business and tries to help the man who helped him get started, whom he still regards as a friend and a former mentor, by employing him as a journeyman. He does not realise Henchard is his enemy, even though the town council and Elizabeth-Jane both warn him.

    Lucetta keeps her former relationship with Henchard a secret, but all is revealed when Henchard lets his enemy Jopp deliver Lucetta’s old love letters. Jopp makes the secret public and the townspeople publicly shame Henchard and Lucetta in a skimmington ride. Lucetta, who by this point is pregnant, dies of an epileptic seizure.

    When Newson, Elizabeth-Jane’s biological father, returns, Henchard is afraid of losing her companionship and tells Newson she is dead. The twenty-first year of his oath is up, and he starts drinking again. By the time Elizabeth-Jane, who months later is married to Donald Farfrae and reunited with Newson, goes looking for Henchard to forgive him, he has died and left a will requesting no funeral.

Synopsis by Kamlesh Tripathi

***

https://kamleshsujata.wordpress.com

*

Share it if you like it

*

Shravan Charity Mission is an NGO that works for poor children suffering from life threatening diseases especially cancer. Should you wish to donate for the cause. The bank details are given below:

NAME OF ACCOUNT: SHRAVAN CHARITY MISSION

Account no: 680510110004635 (BANK OF INDIA)

IFSC code: BKID0006805

*

Our publications

GLOOM BEHIND THE SMILE

(The book is about a young cancer patient. Now archived in 7 prestigious libraries of the US, including, Harvard University and Library of Congress. It can also be accessed in MIT through Worldcat.org. Besides, it is also available for reading in Libraries and archives of Canada and Cancer Aid and Research Foundation Mumbai)  

ONE TO TANGO … RIA’S ODYSSEY

(Is a book on ‘singlehood’ about a Delhi girl now archived in Connemara Library, Chennai and Delhi Public Library, GOI, Ministry of Culture, Delhi)

AADAB LUCKNOW … FOND MEMORIES

(Is a fiction written around the great city of Nawabs—Lucknow. It describes Lucknow in great detail and also talks about its Hindu-Muslim amity. That happens to be its undying characteristic. The book was launched in Lucknow International Literary Festival of 2014)

REFRACTIONS … FROM THE PRISM OF GOD

(Co-published by Cankids–Kidscan, a pan India NGO and Shravan Charity Mission, that works for Child cancer in India. The book is endorsed by Ms Preetha Reddy, MD Apollo Hospitals Group. It was launched in Lucknow International Literary Festival 2016)

TYPICAL TALE OF AN INDIAN SALESMAN

(Is a story of an Indian salesman who is, humbly qualified. Yet he fights his ways through unceasing uncertainties to reach the top. A good read not only for salesmen. The book was launched on 10th February, 2018 in Gorakhpur Lit-Fest. Now available in Amazon, Flipkart and Onlinegatha

(ALL THE ABOVE TITLES ARE AVAILABLE FOR SALE IN AMAZON, FLIPKART AND OTHER ONLINE STORES OR YOU COULD EVEN WRITE TO US FOR A COPY)

*****