Professional Guides to cultivating Humanity-Hema Raghavan|B.Com/BBA English Literature

English Literature

Chapter-7

Professional Guides to Cultivating Humanity

Hema Raghavan

Short Answer Questions

1.Name the workers who were urgently needed?

The workers who were urgently needed were- an electrician,an optician, an artist, a construction worker,a gardener and a maths teacher.

2.What does the spark look like?

The spark in us seems to look like a lamp in a bushel.

3.By what has the human contact been replaced in the modern world?

In this modern world of technology, human contact has been replaced by the impersonal e-mail, Twitter, SMS and Facebook.

4.The human communication through modern technology is impersonal.

5.Who said "a crowd is not a company"?

Francis Bacon said "a crowd is not a company".

6.What is Facebook according to the author?

According to the author, Facebook is one such device that has a gallery of faces that we look at without any feeling and often without recognition.

7.How can humanity survive according to the author?

According to the author, if humanity is to survive then we have to repair the fuse in our communication circuit for a free flow of the current and restore the vitality of inter personal communication bonded on words,gestures feelings and emotions.

8.Man is heir to a rich A)past b)present c)future

9.What according to the author is the characteristic of the 20th century?

According to the author the 20th century has the characteristic of making everything new and is known as as the Modern Age.

10.The advent of the new millennium has seen the rise of the ugly face of fundamentalism.True/False?

True

11.What made one forget the art and pleasure of gardening?

The transition to the urban milieu had made us forget the art and pleasure of gardening.

12.What is essential to develop a tension free harmonious development of the body spirit and mind

Cultivating good thoughts is essential to develop a tension free harmonious development of the body spirit and mind.

13.There is the spirit of the gardener lying dormant within us.

Everest-My journey to the top-Bachendri Pal New

What i require from life-J.B.S.Haldane

A work of Art-Anton Chekhov

Paragraph answer questions

1.What did the analysts argue about cultural heritage?

Some analysts argue that lasting cultural rigidities will obstruct or perhaps even reverse the globalisation process that in the long run will result in alienation from the global community.Hence there is an urgent need to balance inherited cultural legacy with the new accelerating culture and promote change from the earlier tradition.

2.What analogy does Ortega Y Gasset give about cultural tension?

Ortega Y Gasset has described cultural tension through the analogy of looking through a window at the garden outside.If the glass is pure,our eye travels through the window pane and rests on the green shrubs and the multiplicity of flowers in the garden.We are not aware of the pane in front of us as the eye goes beyond to focus on the garden.But if we disregard the garden and detain our vision at the window, what we see will be a confused mass of colours pasted to the pane.Hence to see the garden and the glass simultaneously are two incompatible operations and call for different adjustments.

3.What are the four disadvantages suffered by monumental optics?

The four disadvantages suffered by monumental optics are, it is seen from a distance, seen from outside,has a halo around it that makes it difficult to see it in totality and lastly its passivity that hinders dynamism to change from within.

4.Explain the attitude of NRIs towards Indian culture?

The NRIs wanting to show off that they are Americans, set out on holiday tours in India and return cursing the filth and dirt and poverty and squalor as they have no eyes to see the richness and beauty that is in abundance in our land.We need to develop the artistic eye to add colours to our life and the better way to do it is by drawing a smile on our face.

5.What kind of re-construction of society is needed today?

Our society have drawn lines on the basis of caste, class, religion,haves and have-nots and we need to build bridges along these lines that would reconcile the dividing forces.We need reconstruction of our society and make it an inclusive society free of malaise and hatred, of caste prejudice and gender violence ,religious bias and class distinction.

6.How does Math help one's daily routine?

Maths is ubiquitous in one's life, say, whether it is with calculations about measurements in a recipe or totalling one's bills or working out the ratio between the gasoline in the car and the distance to be covered or working the bank interest rates on one's savings and calculating income tax returns, everywhere maths is around us.To count one's good fortune and count the number of friends, also form a part of one's daily routine , which is again maths.

What i require from life-J.B.S.Haldane

The native American Oral Tradition

The five boons of life-Mark Twain

7.How can humanity be cultivated by a mathematician?

We have to be mathematicians to give ourselves a good and comfortable life.We are not alone in this world.We are a part of humanity.If humanity survives , we survive. If humanity is at peace, we are at peace.So we have to cultivate humanity by counting on each other.So we must cultivate mathematics to cultivate humanity.

Essay Answer Questions

1.Comment on the Indian sense of humour according to the author.

According to the author, we Indians are not a humorous race who can laugh at ourselves.What we Indians see today on our TV channels as comedy, is an attenuated version of comedy.We fit well with the adaptation of the Shakespearean quotation"Humour thy name is not Indian".We need humour only to dissect and destroy others.

We think of comedy only as satire and that too political satire that employs ironic comedy to portray persons or social institutions as ridiculous or corrupt, then alienating their audience from the object of humour. We have not refined our sense of humour to laugh at simple foibles of men and women,but often mistake comedy to be one of scatological or sexual humour.

The wry smile that is forced out of these shows is a testimony of our lack of understanding good comedy.Our TV comedies do not explore the cracks and contradiction in our attitudes and conventions nor are they a commentary on social life based on close observations and incisive questioning.Most of the time they fall flat and they try to force people to laugh at bawdiness and vulgarity as the spice of humour.

According to the author Indians in general do not laugh but roar with laughter at bawdy jokes.The author says that we need to draw a smile on our face instead of looking either miserable or sad or serious and have the trust on our senses to see beauty in this world.