Category: English Summary

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Summary of Gulliver’s Travels Part 3 Chapter 7

Summary of Gulliver’s Travels Part 3 Chapter 7

The narrator leaves Lagado: arrives at Maldonado. No ship ready. He takes a short voyage to Glubbdubdrib. His reception by the governor is described.

Gulliver claimed that Balnibarbi was situated in the Pacific, towards the west of California, which had not yet been charted. To the north of Lagado lay the island of Luggnagg, which was not far southeast of Japan. These two countries had trade relations, so Gulliver decided to go to Luggnagg, sail for Japan and then head for Europe. Gulliver tried to travel to Luggnagg, but he found that no ship available. Since he had to wait a month before a boat would arrive at the port city of Maldonada to take him to Luggnagg, he was advised to take a trip to Glubbdubdrib, the island of sorcerers. These sorcerers were very private and only married among each other. The Governor of Glubbdubdrib could raise the dead, but only for one day and he couldn’t call them back again until three months had gone by.

Gulliver visited the governor of Glubbdubdrib, who asked Gulliver about his adventures. He found that servants who attended the governor were spirits who could appear and disappear. After ten days on Glubbdubdrib, Gulliver became so familiar with the sight of ghosts that apprehension was replaced by curiosity. This led the Governor to make him an offer: Gulliver could speak to any ghost he chose and to as many as he wanted to.

The one thing he had to promise was that he would only ask them questions about their own time. Gulliver chose Alexander the Great, who told him that he had died, not from poison, but from excessive drinking. He then saw the Carthaginian general Hannibal and the Roman leaders Caesar, Pompey and Brutus. Gulliver didn’t want to bore the reader with a complete list of who he spoke to, but most of his conversations were with great men of history who had killed tyrants and had fought for liberty.

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Summary of Gulliver’s Travels Part 3 Chapter 6

Summary of Gulliver’s Travels Part 3 Chapter 6

A further account of the academy. The narrator proposes some improvements, which are honourably received.

Gulliver then visited professors who were studying issues of government. He sarcastically referred to them as being ‘wholly out of their senses’. They proposed schemes for persuading monarchs to choose favourites based on their wisdom, capacity and virtue; of teaching ministers to consider the public good; of rewarding merit, great abilities, eminent services; of instructing princes to know their true interest, by placing it on the same foundation with that of their people; of choosing for employments, persons qualified to exercise them, with many other ‘wild’, ‘impossible’ schemes.

However, not all of them were so visionary. One of the political projectors suggested that, if a political assembly is like a body, then it stands to reason that cures for the body might also cure problems in the assembly itself. So, he suggested that all senators should receive regular medical treatment to make sure that they didn’t fall into greed, corruption, or bribery. He also suggested various ‘cures’ for the weak memories and poor decision-making of senators. He also opined that, if political parties became violent, a hundred leaders from each political party could be taken and their brains split in such a manner that the brain may be equally divided and the portion cut-off to be interchanged, applying each to the head of his opposite party-man. In this way, each skull would have half a conservative and half a liberal brain in it. Then they could argue it out among themselves.

To raise money, there was a proposal to tax everything bad in a man, as decided by his neighbours. A second fellow suggested that they tax everything good about a man, again, as assessed by his neighbours. The problem was ensuring that jealous neighbours would not unjustly accuse each other. Another claimed that women should be taxed according to their beauty and skill at dressing.

To choose who would serve in high office, a professor proposed a raffle, which would keep hope alive among senators who might otherwise turn against the crown. Another professor advised that one could tell if a man was plotting against the government by measuring and analyzing his excrement. Gulliver offered to tell this professor about a land he had seen, ‘Tribnia’, which its residents called ‘Langden’.

Gulliver informed them that the plots in ‘Tribnia’ were generally hatched by informers who wanted to raise their own reputations by making up stuff. Usually, the accusers decided who to target in advance so they could raid the homes of the accused. There, they stole all the letters belonging to the accused so they could find ‘proof of treason by assigning special meanings and fake codes to the words of the accused. If making false allegations failed, these people had two other methods even more effectual. They could decipher all initial letters into political meanings. Or by transposing the letters of the alphabet in any suspected paper, they could give it any meaning they chose, thereby, they laid open the deepest designs of a discontented party.

Gulliver grew tired of the academy and began to yearn for a return to England.

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Summary of Gulliver’s Travels Part 3 Chapter 5

Summary of Gulliver’s Travels Part 3 Chapter 5

The narrator is permitted to see the grand academy of Lagado. The academy is largely described as an area of the arts wherein the professors employ themselves.

The Royal Academy in Lagado was not an entire single building, but a continuation of several houses on both sides of a street, which were lying vacant and were purchased and applied to that use. Gulliver was received very kindly by the warden and spent many days at the academy, where there were at least 500 Projectors who came up with a variety of visionary, impracticable schemes. Gulliver met a man engaged in a project to extract sunbeams from cucumbers.

He also met a scientist trying to turn excrement back into food. Another was attempting to turn ice into gunpowder and was writing a treatise about the malleability of fire, hoping to have it published. An architect was designing a way to build houses from the roof down and a blind master was teaching his blind apprentices to mix colours for painters according to smell and touch. An agronomist was designing a method of ploughing fields with hogs by first burying food in the ground and then letting the hogs loose to dig it out.

Gulliver complained of colic and his guide led him into a room where a great physician, who was famous for curing that disease, resided. This doctor tried to cure patients by blowing air through them. Gulliver left this doctor trying to revive a dog, that he had killed, by supposedly curing it in this way.

On the other side of the academy there were people engaged in speculative learning. One professor had a class full of boys working from a machine that produced random sets of words. Using this machine, the teacher claimed, anyone could write a book on philosophy or politics. A linguist in another room was attempting to remove all the elements of language except nouns. Such pruning, he claimed, would make language more concise and prolong lives, since every word spoken was detrimental to the human body. Since nouns were only things, furthermore, it would be even easier to carry things and never speak at all. Another professor tried to teach mathematics by having his students eat wafers that had mathematical proofs written on them.

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Summary of Gulliver’s Travels Part 3 Chapter 4

Summary of Gulliver’s Travels Part 3 Chapter 4

The narrator leaves Laputa; is conveyed to Balnibarbi and arrives at the metropolis. A description of the metropolis and the adjoining country is given. The narrator is hospitably received by a great lord.

Gulliver felt neglected on Laputa since the inhabitants seemed interested only in mathematics and music and were far superior to him in their knowledge. He was bored by their conversation and wanted to leave. There was one lord of the court whom Gulliver found to be intelligent and curious and who had done many great things for the state, but he got no respect because he had no ear for music and no talent for mathematics. He and Gulliver bonded because they could talk sensibly to each other. Gulliver asked this lord to petition the king to let him leave the island. The king agreed, gave him some money and he was let down on the mountains above Lagado.

He visited another lord, named Munodi and was invited to stay at his home. Gulliver was disappointed at the sight of Lagado. Though the town was about half the size of London, it had houses very strangely built and most of them out of repair. The people in the streets walked fast, looked wild, their eyes fixed and were generally in rags. He expressed his opinion on the poverty of Lagado to Lord Munodi, who suggested that they kept that conversation for a later time, when they were safely at Lord Munodi’s own estates.

They then travelled to Munodi’s country house, passing many barren fields before arriving at Munodi’s estates. Lord Munodi’s estates were beautiful, well-cultivated and seemed prosperous—totally the opposite of the other Balnibarbi lands. He said that the other lords criticised him heavily for the ‘mismanagement’ of his land—he had left his orchards, fields and home in the old model of his forefathers, while the rest of Balnibarbi had gone over to new ideas of farming.

Munodi explained that forty years ago some people had gone to Laputa and returned with new ideas about mathematics and art. They decided to establish an academy in Lagado to develop new theories on agriculture and construction and to initiate projects to improve the lives of the city’s inhabitants. The professors promised all kinds of miracles—auto-ripening fruit, reduction of working hours, etc., but the problem was—all their calculations didn’t actually work. The new techniques left the country in ruin. Lord Munodi promised to get Gulliver an invitation to Lagado’s Royal Academy if he wanted it, which Gulliver did since he was once intrigued by projects of this sort himself.

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Summary of Gulliver’s Travels Part 3 Chapter 3

Summary of Gulliver’s Travels Part 3 Chapter 3

A phenomenon is solved by modern philosophy and astronomy. The Laputans’ great improvements in the latter and the king’s method of suppressing insurrections is described.

The flying or floating island was exactly circular, it had a diameter of about four miles and a half and an area of ten thousand acres. It was three hundred yards thick. The bottom, or under surface, was a hard, unbreakable stone plate, about two hundred yards thick. Above it lay several minerals and the top most layer was rich mould. The surface sloped from the sides to the centre and the rain was conveyed in small rivulets into four large basins that collected rain water. The monarch could raise the island above the region of clouds and vapours preventing the falling of dew and rain whenever he pleased.

At the centre of the island was a deep canyon called ‘Flandona Gagnole’, or the astronomer’s cave. This cave contained all their astronomical instruments and a magnet, six yards long, in the middle of it. This magnet attracted at one end, repelled at the other. The island was made to rise and fall and move from one place to another with the help of this magnet. The movement of Laputa had limits: it couldn’t go beyond the king’s own dominions, in other words, the islands that he controlled at sea level. It also couldn’t rise higher than four miles above the earth.

It was the job of the king’s astronomers to do the actual manipulation of the magnet at his orders. They also spent a lot of time discovering things about the solar system and the stars. The only thing that limited the king’s control of the earth below him was that all of his cabinet members had estates on the islands below Laputa, so they found the idea of dominating the islands under them to be pretty risky for their own families.

At the same time, the king still had two methods for keeping his authority over the lower islands without absolutely enslaving them. If any of them refused to pay tribute, he made his island float directly overhead, blocking their sunlight and rain, until they gave in and, if they continued to refuse to obey him, the king could drop his island directly on their heads.

The king rarely ordered this kind of total destruction because his ministers had their homes down below and his own people would revolt against him.

Such measures failed to work in the city of Lindalino, where the rebellious inhabitants had stored provisions of food in advance. They planned to force the island to come so low that it would be trapped forever and to kill the king and his officials in order to take over the government. The King, who was also secretly worried that the power of his magnet might not be strong enough to lift the island again if it came crashing to earth, ordered the island to stop descending and gave in to the town’s demands.

Laputa also had a law that neither the king nor his two eldest sons, nor the queen are allowed to leave the floating island.

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Summary of Gulliver’s Travels Part 3 Chapter 2

Summary of Gulliver’s Travels Part 3 Chapter 2

The humourous dispositions of the Laputans is described. An account of their learning of the king and his court is given. The narrator’s reception there is described. The inhabitants are subject to fear and disquietudes. An account of the women is also given.

Gulliver was immediately surrounded by people and noticed that they were all quite odd. Their heads were all tilted to one side or the other, with one eye turned inward and the other looking up. Their clothes were adorned with images of celestial bodies and musical instruments. Gulliver immediately realized that the inhabitants of Laputa were a race of distracted people, who had a very limited attention span and very narrow interests; that was the reason why the servants carried a ‘flapper’ made of a stick with a pouch tied to the end. Their job was to aid conversation by striking the ear of the listener and the mouth of the speaker at the appropriate times to prevent their masters’ minds from wandering off.

Gulliver was conveyed to the king, who sat behind a table loaded with mathematical instruments. They waited an hour before there was some opportunity to arouse the king from his thoughts, at which point he was struck with the flapper. The king said something and Gulliver’s ear was struck with the flapper as well, even though he tried to explain that he did not require such actions. It became clear that he and the king could not speak any of the same languages, so Gulliver was taken to an apartment and served dinner.

A teacher was sent to instruct Gulliver in the language of the island and he was able to learn several sentences. He discovered that the name of the island is Laputa, which in their language meant ‘floating island.’ A tailor was also sent to provide him with new clothes and while he was waiting for these clothes, the king ordered the island to be moved. It was taken to a point above the capital city of the kingdom, Lagado, passing villages along the way. As they went they collected petitions from the king’s subjects by means of ropes sent down to the lands below.

The language of the Laputans relied heavily on mathematical and musical concepts, as they valued these theoretical disciplines above everything. The Laputans despised practical geometry, thinking it vulgar—so much so that they made sure that there were no right angles in their buildings. They were very good with charts and figures but very clumsy in practical matters. They practiced astrology and dreaded changes in the celestial bodies. They spent their time listening to the music of the spheres. They believed in astrology and worried constantly that the sun would go out. The Laputian houses, he noticed, were badly built, without accurate right angles.

Gulliver discovered that Laputa controlled the continent under it, Balnibarbi and that there were frequent visitors and deliveries from sea level up to Laputa by means of rope. In fact, the king lived in Laputa, but Balnibarbi was the capital city.

What surprised Gulliver was that, even though all the Laputans knew only mathematics and music, they still liked to talk endlessly about politics. He also found it strange that the Laputans lived in such constant fear of the end of the world that they hardly slept at night or enjoyed life. The women of Laputa despised their husbands and loved strangers.

Gulliver became pretty fluent in Laputian after a month. He and the king talked but the king didn’t bother asking him about the countries he had seen; all of his questions revolved around mathematics and science known to Gulliver’s people.

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Summary of Gulliver’s Travels Part 3 Chapter 1

Summary of Gulliver’s Travels Part 3 Chapter 1

The narrator sets out on his third voyage and is taken by pirates. The malice of a Dutchman is described. The narrator arrives at an island and is received into Laputa.

Gulliver had been home in England only ten days when he was visited by a former captain of his, William Robinson, who offered him the position of a surgeon on his ship that would sail for the East Indies in two months’ time. Gulliver agreed and convinced his wife that this was a good opportunity and set off to sea again on ‘The Hopewell’. Upon reaching the port of Tonquin, the captain, who had to stay ashore, sent a sloop with a crew of fourteen under Gulliver’s leadership, to trade with some nearby islands.

This small boat was attacked and captured by two pirate ships. The Japanese pirates were accompanied by a Dutchman, who told the English that he wanted them to be tied up and thrown into the sea. Gulliver, who spoke Dutch, begged the pirate to let them go, but his requests and his reference to the Dutchman as a ‘brother Christian’ seemed only to make the Dutchman angrier. A Japanese pirate captain reassured them they would not die and decided to split Gulliver’s crew between their two ships. Gulliver told the Dutchman that he was surprised to find more mercy in a heathen than in a Christian. At his words the Dutchman grew angry and punished Gulliver by setting him adrift in a small canoe with only four days’ worth of food.

Gulliver rowed to some tiny local islands nearby, but he couldn’t find much food or shelter on any of them. While he was standing on the fifth and last island, Gulliver saw a mysterious shadow blot out the sun for some time. He took out his telescope, looked up and saw that it was a floating island covered with people. He was baffled by this floating island and shouted up to its inhabitants. They lowered the island and sent down a chain by which he was drawn up.

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Summary of Gulliver’s Travels Part 3 A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib and Japan

Summary of Gulliver’s Travels Part 3 A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib and Japan Chapter 1 to 11

• Summary of Gulliver’s Travels Part 3 Chapter 1
• Summary of Gulliver’s Travels Part 3 Chapter 2
• Summary of Gulliver’s Travels Part 3 Chapter 3
• Summary of Gulliver’s Travels Part 3 Chapter 4
• Summary of Gulliver’s Travels Part 3 Chapter 5
• Summary of Gulliver’s Travels Part 3 Chapter 6
• Summary of Gulliver’s Travels Part 3 Chapter 7
• Summary of Gulliver’s Travels Part 3 Chapter 8
• Summary of Gulliver’s Travels Part 3 Chapter 9
• Summary of Gulliver’s Travels Part 3 Chapter 10
• Summary of Gulliver’s Travels Part 3 Chapter 11

Summary of Gulliver’s Travels Part 3 Chapter 1

The narrator sets out on his third voyage and is taken by pirates. The malice of a Dutchman is described. The narrator arrives at an island and is received into Laputa.

Gulliver had been home in England only ten days when he was visited by a former captain of his, William Robinson, who offered him the position of a surgeon on his ship that would sail for the East Indies in two months’ time. Gulliver agreed and convinced his wife that this was a good opportunity and set off to sea again on ‘The Hopewell’. Upon reaching the port of Tonquin, the captain, who had to stay ashore, sent a sloop with a crew of fourteen under Gulliver’s leadership, to trade with some nearby islands.

This small boat was attacked and captured by two pirate ships. The Japanese pirates were accompanied by a Dutchman, who told the English that he wanted them to be tied up and thrown into the sea. Gulliver, who spoke Dutch, begged the pirate to let them go, but his requests and his reference to the Dutchman as a ‘brother Christian’ seemed only to make the Dutchman angrier. A Japanese pirate captain reassured them they would not die and decided to split Gulliver’s crew between their two ships. Gulliver told the Dutchman that he was surprised to find more mercy in a heathen than in a Christian. At his words the Dutchman grew angry and punished Gulliver by setting him adrift in a small canoe with only four days’ worth of food.

Gulliver rowed to some tiny local islands nearby, but he couldn’t find much food or shelter on any of them. While he was standing on the fifth and last island, Gulliver saw a mysterious shadow blot out the sun for some time. He took out his telescope, looked up and saw that it was a floating island covered with people. He was baffled by this floating island and shouted up to its inhabitants. They lowered the island and sent down a chain by which he was drawn up.

Summary of Gulliver’s Travels Part 3 Chapter 2

The humourous dispositions of the Laputans is described. An account of their learning of the king and his court is given. The narrator’s reception there is described. The inhabitants are subject to fear and disquietudes. An account of the women is also given.

Gulliver was immediately surrounded by people and noticed that they were all quite odd. Their heads were all tilted to one side or the other, with one eye turned inward and the other looking up. Their clothes were adorned with images of celestial bodies and musical instruments. Gulliver immediately realized that the inhabitants of Laputa were a race of distracted people, who had a very limited attention span and very narrow interests; that was the reason why the servants carried a ‘flapper’ made of a stick with a pouch tied to the end. Their job was to aid conversation by striking the ear of the listener and the mouth of the speaker at the appropriate times to prevent their masters’ minds from wandering off.

Gulliver was conveyed to the king, who sat behind a table loaded with mathematical instruments. They waited an hour before there was some opportunity to arouse the king from his thoughts, at which point he was struck with the flapper. The king said something and Gulliver’s ear was struck with the flapper as well, even though he tried to explain that he did not require such actions. It became clear that he and the king could not speak any of the same languages, so Gulliver was taken to an apartment and served dinner.

A teacher was sent to instruct Gulliver in the language of the island and he was able to learn several sentences. He discovered that the name of the island is Laputa, which in their language meant ‘floating island.’ A tailor was also sent to provide him with new clothes and while he was waiting for these clothes, the king ordered the island to be moved. It was taken to a point above the capital city of the kingdom, Lagado, passing villages along the way. As they went they collected petitions from the king’s subjects by means of ropes sent down to the lands below.

The language of the Laputans relied heavily on mathematical and musical concepts, as they valued these theoretical disciplines above everything. The Laputans despised practical geometry, thinking it vulgar—so much so that they made sure that there were no right angles in their buildings. They were very good with charts and figures but very clumsy in practical matters. They practiced astrology and dreaded changes in the celestial bodies. They spent their time listening to the music of the spheres. They believed in astrology and worried constantly that the sun would go out. The Laputian houses, he noticed, were badly built, without accurate right angles.

Gulliver discovered that Laputa controlled the continent under it, Balnibarbi and that there were frequent visitors and deliveries from sea level up to Laputa by means of rope. In fact, the king lived in Laputa, but Balnibarbi was the capital city.

What surprised Gulliver was that, even though all the Laputans knew only mathematics and music, they still liked to talk endlessly about politics. He also found it strange that the Laputans lived in such constant fear of the end of the world that they hardly slept at night or enjoyed life. The women of Laputa despised their husbands and loved strangers.

Gulliver became pretty fluent in Laputian after a month. He and the king talked but the king didn’t bother asking him about the countries he had seen; all of his questions revolved around mathematics and science known to Gulliver’s people.

Summary of Gulliver’s Travels Part 3 Chapter 3

A phenomenon is solved by modern philosophy and astronomy. The Laputans’ great improvements in the latter and the king’s method of suppressing insurrections is described.

The flying or floating island was exactly circular, it had a diameter of about four miles and a half and an area of ten thousand acres. It was three hundred yards thick. The bottom, or under surface, was a hard, unbreakable stone plate, about two hundred yards thick. Above it lay several minerals and the top most layer was rich mould. The surface sloped from the sides to the centre and the rain was conveyed in small rivulets into four large basins that collected rain water. The monarch could raise the island above the region of clouds and vapours preventing the falling of dew and rain whenever he pleased.

At the centre of the island was a deep canyon called ‘Flandona Gagnole’, or the astronomer’s cave. This cave contained all their astronomical instruments and a magnet, six yards long, in the middle of it. This magnet attracted at one end, repelled at the other. The island was made to rise and fall and move from one place to another with the help of this magnet. The movement of Laputa had limits: it couldn’t go beyond the king’s own dominions, in other words, the islands that he controlled at sea level. It also couldn’t rise higher than four miles above the earth.

It was the job of the king’s astronomers to do the actual manipulation of the magnet at his orders. They also spent a lot of time discovering things about the solar system and the stars. The only thing that limited the king’s control of the earth below him was that all of his cabinet members had estates on the islands below Laputa, so they found the idea of dominating the islands under them to be pretty risky for their own families.

At the same time, the king still had two methods for keeping his authority over the lower islands without absolutely enslaving them. If any of them refused to pay tribute, he made his island float directly overhead, blocking their sunlight and rain, until they gave in and, if they continued to refuse to obey him, the king could drop his island directly on their heads.

The king rarely ordered this kind of total destruction because his ministers had their homes down below and his own people would revolt against him.

Such measures failed to work in the city of Lindalino, where the rebellious inhabitants had stored provisions of food in advance. They planned to force the island to come so low that it would be trapped forever and to kill the king and his officials in order to take over the government. The King, who was also secretly worried that the power of his magnet might not be strong enough to lift the island again if it came crashing to earth, ordered the island to stop descending and gave in to the town’s demands.

Laputa also had a law that neither the king nor his two eldest sons, nor the queen are allowed to leave the floating island.

Summary of Gulliver’s Travels Part 3 Chapter 4

The narrator leaves Laputa; is conveyed to Balnibarbi and arrives at the metropolis. A description of the metropolis and the adjoining country is given. The narrator is hospitably received by a great lord.

Gulliver felt neglected on Laputa since the inhabitants seemed interested only in mathematics and music and were far superior to him in their knowledge. He was bored by their conversation and wanted to leave. There was one lord of the court whom Gulliver found to be intelligent and curious and who had done many great things for the state, but he got no respect because he had no ear for music and no talent for mathematics. He and Gulliver bonded because they could talk sensibly to each other. Gulliver asked this lord to petition the king to let him leave the island. The king agreed, gave him some money and he was let down on the mountains above Lagado.

He visited another lord, named Munodi and was invited to stay at his home. Gulliver was disappointed at the sight of Lagado. Though the town was about half the size of London, it had houses very strangely built and most of them out of repair. The people in the streets walked fast, looked wild, their eyes fixed and were generally in rags. He expressed his opinion on the poverty of Lagado to Lord Munodi, who suggested that they kept that conversation for a later time, when they were safely at Lord Munodi’s own estates.

They then travelled to Munodi’s country house, passing many barren fields before arriving at Munodi’s estates. Lord Munodi’s estates were beautiful, well-cultivated and seemed prosperous—totally the opposite of the other Balnibarbi lands. He said that the other lords criticised him heavily for the ‘mismanagement’ of his land—he had left his orchards, fields and home in the old model of his forefathers, while the rest of Balnibarbi had gone over to new ideas of farming.

Munodi explained that forty years ago some people had gone to Laputa and returned with new ideas about mathematics and art. They decided to establish an academy in Lagado to develop new theories on agriculture and construction and to initiate projects to improve the lives of the city’s inhabitants. The professors promised all kinds of miracles—auto-ripening fruit, reduction of working hours, etc., but the problem was—all their calculations didn’t actually work. The new techniques left the country in ruin. Lord Munodi promised to get Gulliver an invitation to Lagado’s Royal Academy if he wanted it, which Gulliver did since he was once intrigued by projects of this sort himself.

Summary of Gulliver’s Travels Part 3 Chapter 5

The narrator is permitted to see the grand academy of Lagado. The academy is largely described as an area of the arts wherein the professors employ themselves.

The Royal Academy in Lagado was not an entire single building, but a continuation of several houses on both sides of a street, which were lying vacant and were purchased and applied to that use. Gulliver was received very kindly by the warden and spent many days at the academy, where there were at least 500 Projectors who came up with a variety of visionary, impracticable schemes. Gulliver met a man engaged in a project to extract sunbeams from cucumbers.

He also met a scientist trying to turn excrement back into food. Another was attempting to turn ice into gunpowder and was writing a treatise about the malleability of fire, hoping to have it published. An architect was designing a way to build houses from the roof down and a blind master was teaching his blind apprentices to mix colours for painters according to smell and touch. An agronomist was designing a method of ploughing fields with hogs by first burying food in the ground and then letting the hogs loose to dig it out.

Gulliver complained of colic and his guide led him into a room where a great physician, who was famous for curing that disease, resided. This doctor tried to cure patients by blowing air through them. Gulliver left this doctor trying to revive a dog, that he had killed, by supposedly curing it in this way.

On the other side of the academy there were people engaged in speculative learning. One professor had a class full of boys working from a machine that produced random sets of words. Using this machine, the teacher claimed, anyone could write a book on philosophy or politics. A linguist in another room was attempting to remove all the elements of language except nouns. Such pruning, he claimed, would make language more concise and prolong lives, since every word spoken was detrimental to the human body. Since nouns were only things, furthermore, it would be even easier to carry things and never speak at all. Another professor tried to teach mathematics by having his students eat wafers that had mathematical proofs written on them.

Summary of Gulliver’s Travels Part 3 Chapter 6

A further account of the academy. The narrator proposes some improvements, which are honourably received.

Gulliver then visited professors who were studying issues of government. He sarcastically referred to them as being ‘wholly out of their senses’. They proposed schemes for persuading monarchs to choose favourites based on their wisdom, capacity and virtue; of teaching ministers to consider the public good; of rewarding merit, great abilities, eminent services; of instructing princes to know their true interest, by placing it on the same foundation with that of their people; of choosing for employments, persons qualified to exercise them, with many other ‘wild’, ‘impossible’ schemes.

However, not all of them were so visionary. One of the political projectors suggested that, if a political assembly is like a body, then it stands to reason that cures for the body might also cure problems in the assembly itself. So, he suggested that all senators should receive regular medical treatment to make sure that they didn’t fall into greed, corruption, or bribery. He also suggested various ‘cures’ for the weak memories and poor decision-making of senators. He also opined that, if political parties became violent, a hundred leaders from each political party could be taken and their brains split in such a manner that the brain may be equally divided and the portion cut-off to be interchanged, applying each to the head of his opposite party-man. In this way, each skull would have half a conservative and half a liberal brain in it. Then they could argue it out among themselves.

To raise money, there was a proposal to tax everything bad in a man, as decided by his neighbours. A second fellow suggested that they tax everything good about a man, again, as assessed by his neighbours. The problem was ensuring that jealous neighbours would not unjustly accuse each other. Another claimed that women should be taxed according to their beauty and skill at dressing.

To choose who would serve in high office, a professor proposed a raffle, which would keep hope alive among senators who might otherwise turn against the crown. Another professor advised that one could tell if a man was plotting against the government by measuring and analyzing his excrement. Gulliver offered to tell this professor about a land he had seen, ‘Tribnia’, which its residents called ‘Langden’.

Gulliver informed them that the plots in ‘Tribnia’ were generally hatched by informers who wanted to raise their own reputations by making up stuff. Usually, the accusers decided who to target in advance so they could raid the homes of the accused. There, they stole all the letters belonging to the accused so they could find ‘proof of treason by assigning special meanings and fake codes to the words of the accused. If making false allegations failed, these people had two other methods even more effectual. They could decipher all initial letters into political meanings. Or by transposing the letters of the alphabet in any suspected paper, they could give it any meaning they chose, thereby, they laid open the deepest designs of a discontented party.

Gulliver grew tired of the academy and began to yearn for a return to England.

Summary of Gulliver’s Travels Part 3 Chapter 7

The narrator leaves Lagado: arrives at Maldonado. No ship ready. He takes a short voyage to Glubbdubdrib. His reception by the governor is described.

Gulliver claimed that Balnibarbi was situated in the Pacific, towards the west of California, which had not yet been charted. To the north of Lagado lay the island of Luggnagg, which was not far southeast of Japan. These two countries had trade relations, so Gulliver decided to go to Luggnagg, sail for Japan and then head for Europe. Gulliver tried to travel to Luggnagg, but he found that no ship available. Since he had to wait a month before a boat would arrive at the port city of Maldonada to take him to Luggnagg, he was advised to take a trip to Glubbdubdrib, the island of sorcerers. These sorcerers were very private and only married among each other. The Governor of Glubbdubdrib could raise the dead, but only for one day and he couldn’t call them back again until three months had gone by.

Gulliver visited the governor of Glubbdubdrib, who asked Gulliver about his adventures. He found that servants who attended the governor were spirits who could appear and disappear. After ten days on Glubbdubdrib, Gulliver became so familiar with the sight of ghosts that apprehension was replaced by curiosity. This led the Governor to make him an offer: Gulliver could speak to any ghost he chose and to as many as he wanted to. The one thing he had to promise was that he would only ask them questions about their own time. Gulliver chose Alexander the Great, who told him that he had died, not from poison, but from excessive drinking. He then saw the Carthaginian general Hannibal and the Roman leaders Caesar, Pompey and Brutus. Gulliver didn’t want to bore the reader with a complete list of who he spoke to, but most of his conversations were with great men of history who had killed tyrants and had fought for liberty.

Summary of Gulliver’s Travels Part 3 Chapter 8

A further account of Glubbdubdrib. Ancient and modem history is corrected.

Gulliver set apart one day to speak with the most venerated people in history, starting with Homer and Aristotle. A ghost informed Gulliver that later scholars who commented on their works had horribly misrepresented the meaning of those authors to posterity. Gulliver also talked to a number of thinkers dealing with the nature of the universe, including the French philosophers Rene Descartes and Pierre Gassendi. He asked Descartes and Gassendi to describe their systems to Aristotle, who freely acknowledged his own mistakes while pointing out that systems of nature would always vary from age to age as each new age of humanity comes up with a new system to explain nature.

Gulliver also met most of the Emperors of Rome. Then he moved on to the more recently deceased ones. He saw plenty of evidence of family degeneration into stupidity and lying. Speaking to the ghosts of the recent past showed Gulliver exactly how much lying goes around and how much history had been manipulated to look better (or worse) than it really was. Gulliver wanted to find out how people had gotten their official and court positions and found that it was through horrible means: bribery, lying, flattery, oppression, treason and poisoning. The only really great services done to the state had been by people who history calls traitors and criminals. In fact, he also realized that this kind of hypocrisy was present even in Rome, once the Empire started to grow rich and luxurious. The introduction of similar wealth to England had made the English people progressively less healthy. Total corruption had caused England to grow repulsive over the last 100 years.

Summary of Gulliver’s Travels Part 3 Chapter 9

The narrator returns to Maldonada. He sails to the kingdom of Luggnagg. The narrator is confined. He is sent to the court. The manner of his admittance and the king’s great levity to his subjects are described.

Gulliver finally left Glubbdubdrib and headed for Luggnagg. He arrived in Luggnagg on 21 April 1708. Gulliver started speaking to a customs officer in Luggnagg, where he pretended to be Dutch, since Gulliver’s eventual destination was Japan and the Japanese would only allow Dutch traders access to their harbours. Gulliver was detained in Luggnagg by red tape, so he hired an interpreter who spoke both Luggnagg and Balnibarbi and answered frequent questions about his travels and the countries he had seen.

Eventually, Gulliver was granted audience with the King of Luggnagg and was given lodging and an allowance. He learnt that subjects were expected to lick the floor as they approached the king and that the king sometimes got rid of opponents in the court by coating the floor with poison. Gulliver exchanged ritual greetings with the king and then spoke to him through his interpreter. The king really liked Gulliver: he gave him some money and let him stay at the palace. Gulliver lived in Luggnagg for three months, but decided that, overall, it would be safer to go home to his wife and children.

Summary of Gulliver’s Travels Part 3 Chapter 10

The Luggnaggians are commended. A particular description of the Struldbrugs, with many conversations between the narrator and some eminent persons upon that subject are given here.

Gulliver found Luggnaggians polite and generous; though they were not without pride. He found many acquaintance and the conversations he had with them were not disagreeable.

One day, the Luggnaggians told Gulliver about certain immortal people, children bom with a red spot on their foreheads who were called Struldbrugs. Gulliver was delighted to find a country where every child had a chance of being bom immortal. The person Gulliver was speaking to asked Gulliver what he would do, if he had been bom immortal. Gulliver thought of many things he would do if he were immortal, starting with acquiring riches and in the course of time, becoming the wealthiest man in the kingdom.

He would apply himself to the acquisition of knowledge. He would bring about changes in customs, language, fashions of dress, diet and means of entertainment. He would live generously, yet still on the saving side. He would also take care to instruct young people among the mortals but choose only immortals as his constant companions. He would help those in need. He would see history take shape. He would see great inventions happen. Gulliver counted many such desires. When he finished, the people listening to him laughed. His interpreter then clarified that Struldbrugs were immortal but were not eternally young. They aged at the same rate as other humans, the difference being, that at 80 years old, they were much more miserable than other old people because they had the prospect of living on and on beyond their 80 years.

According to the law of the country, as soon as a Struldbrug turned 80, he was dead in terms of the law, so all of his money went to his heirs—he was totally poor. Struldbrug marriages were also dissolved at 80, since they would make the couple so much more unhappy. At 90, they started losing their teeth, so they didn’t enjoy eating anymore. Their memories got bad and they couldn’t read without forgetting, at the end of a sentence, how it began. Because language evolved with time, older Struldbrugs couldn’t understand younger people at all. They had to beg for money, since otherwise, they had to get by on a tiny state allowance. Gulliver met some Struldbrugs and found them to be unhappy and unpleasant and he regretted ever wishing for their state. At the same time, the Luggnaggian King reminded him that the sight of a Struldbrug cured everyone of the fear of death.

Summary of Gulliver’s Travels Part 3 Chapter 11

The narrator leaves Luggnagg, and sails to Japan. From thence he returns in a Dutch ship to Amsterdam, and from Amsterdam to England.

The Luggnaggian King offered Gulliver a job at court, but Gulliver wanted to go home. The king sent him off with a generous gift of gold. Gulliver headed to Japan, where he used a letter of recommendation from the Luggnaggian King to get an audience with the emperor of Japan.

The two talked to each other using Dutch. Gulliver told the emperor that he was a Dutch merchant looking for passage to Nangasac, home to a large Dutch settlement in the eighteenth century. The emperor agreed. Gulliver’s trip home was uneventful, and he finally got to see his family after five and a half years.

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The Tale of Melon City Summary in English by Vikram Seth

The Tale of Melon City by Vikram Seth About the Author

Poet Name	Vikram Seth
Born	20 June 1952 (age 67 years), Kolkata
Education	Corpus Christi College, St. Michael’s High School
Nominations	National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography
Awards	Padma Shri, Sahitya Akademi Award

The Tale of Melon City Summary in English

The poem is set in a city that was ruled by an impartial and mild-mannered king. He announced, one day, that an arch should be built in the city that would extend over the major main road to improve the condition for the masses. The workmen obeyed the orders and constructed the arch as they were directed. After it was built, the king rode through the street and while crossing below the arch, his crown fell off because it was built too low.

His mild expression turned into a scowl. He took this as a dishonour and sentenced the chief of builders to be hung till death. The rope was brought and gallows prepared. When the chief of builders was brought, he pleaded that it was the fault of the workers. The King stopped the procedures because he was fair and ordered that all the workmen be put to death. The workmen protested to the king that they were not the ones at fault but it was the masons who had made bricks of the wrong size.

The king called the masons and as they stood trembling in fear, they blamed the architect. The architect was sent for. When he arrived, the king proclaimed that he be hanged. The architect reminded the king that he, himself, had made certain changes in the plans when they were shown to him.

When the king heard this, he was so angry that he almost lost his ability to reason. Since he was righteous and tolerant, the king admitted that this was a difficult situation. He required advice, so he called for the wisest man in the country. The wisest man was found and carried to the royal court as he could neither walk, nor see. He was an old and an experienced man. He said in a trembling, feeble voice that the offender must be penalised—the arch that had thrown the crown off, must be hanged. Thus the arch was taken to the platform where the criminals are executed when, suddenly, a councillor said that it would be a disgrace to hang something that touched the honourable head.

The king was thoughtful and felt that the point raised was valid, indeed. But by this time, the crowd that had gathered around became restless and started grumbling. The king noticed their mood and was worried. Addressing all the people gathered there, he said that they must put off thinking about points like faults and responsibilities, as the country wanted to see the execution. Hence, someone must be hanged immediately.

The loop in the rope was got ready and was set up. It was a little high. Hence all the people were measured, one by one, to see who would reach the noose. Finally they found the man—it was none other than the king. Thus he was hanged as per the royal ruling. The ministers were glad that they had found someone to keep the unmanageable people in the town from rebelling against the king.

After his execution, they shouted, “Long live the King! The King is dead.” They pondered over the difficulty of the situation and being good at finding solutions, they sent out the messengers to announce that the next person to cross the city gate would decide the ruler of the kingdom. According to their practice, this decision would be made obligatory in a suitable ceremony.

The next man who crossed the city gate was a fool. The guards asked him to decide who ought to be the king.

The fool replied it ought to be “a melon”. This was his usual answer to all questions because he liked melons. The ministers crowned a melon and accepted it as their king. They carried the melon to the throne and respectfully placed it on it.

This event took place many years ago. Now, when the people, are questioned how a melon came to be their king, they say that the decision was based on “customary choice”. They argue that if the king is delighted in being a melon, they have no reason to criticise him as long as he left them live in peace and liberty. In that kingdom, the philosophy of laissez faire (refusal to interfere) seems to be well established.

The Tale of Melon City Summary Questions and Answers

Question 1.
What do the words ‘just and placid’ imply?
Answer:
The phrase implied that the king was fair and mild. The king, ‘a great believer injustice’ ensured justice was meted out to his subjects. He was also mild mannered and rarely showed any displeasure—and even if he did frown, he quickly wiped the frown off his face.

Question 2.
Where did the king want the arch constructed? Why?
Answer:
The king wanted an arch to be erected which extended over the major main road. He felt, the road would edify the spectators—it would improve the morals and knowledge of the onlookers there.

Question 3.
What happened to the king as he rode down the road?
Answer:
After the arch was built, the king rode through the street. He wanted to edify the spectators there. But as he was crossing below the arch, his crown fell off as the arch was built too low. This angered the king.

Question 4.
What order did the king give when his crown was knocked off his head?
Answer:
The king was angry because his crown was knocked off his head as he tried to ride under the arch. He ordered the chief of the builders, responsible for building the arch, to be hanged.

Question 5.
How did the chief of the builders escape hanging?
Answer:
When the chief of the builders was led away to be hanged, he pleaded innocence. He claimed that it was the fault of the workers that the arch was built so low. He escaped hanging as the ‘just and placid’ king could not bear to punish an innocent man.

Question 6.
Why were the workmen to be hanged? How did they escape hanging?
Answer:
The king ordered the workmen to be put to death as they were painted responsible, for building the low arch, by the chief of the builders. The workmen protested that they were not the ones at fault and blamed the masons who had made bricks of the wrong size. They, too, escaped death by hanging.

Question 7.
Whom did the architect lay the blame on?
Answer:
The masons blamed the architect for the poor design of the arch. The architect, in turn, passed on the blame to the king who had made certain changes in the architectural plans of the arch.

Question 8.
How did the king react to the architect’s accusation? Why did he react that way?
Answer:
When the king heard the architect’s accusation, he was so angry that he almost lost his ability to reason.

Since, he was righteous and tolerant, he admitted that this was a difficult situation. The king solicited advice and called for the wisest man in the country for counsel.

Question 9.
How was the wise man brought to court? What advice did he offer?
Answer:
The wisest man was found and carried to the royal court, as he could neither walk nor see. He was an old and experienced man. He said in a trembling, feeble voice that the offender must be penalized. He condemned the arch, guilty, for throwing the crown off the king’s head.

Question 10.
The arch was not punished in the end. Why?
Answer:
The wise man declared that it was the arch that had thrown the crown off, and it must be hanged. A councillor objected to the arch being hanged; he called it a disgrace to hang something that had touched the honourable head of the king. The king agreed with the councillor and the arch was spared.

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Birth Summary in English by A.J. Cronin

Birth by A.J. Cronin About the Author

Author Name	A.J. Cronin
Born	19 July 1896, Cardross, United Kingdom
Died	6 January 1981, Montreux, Switzerland
Full Name	Archibald Joseph Cronin
Movies and TV shows	Citadel, The Stars Look Down
Awards	National Book Award for Fiction

Birth Summary in English

Andrew reached Bryngower at almost midnight. Joe Morgan was waiting for him, walking up and down, looking visibly disturbed, but at the sight of Andrew his face showed his relief. He wanted the doctor to accompany him home, as his wife was about to deliver their first child. Andrew put away his personal thoughts, got his bag and accompanied him to his place, Number 12 Blaina Terrace. Andrew now felt dull and lacking in energy. He did not know that this night would be unusual and would affect his entire future in Blaenelly.

They reached the door of Number 12 and Joe did not go in but told Andrew, he was confident that he would do them good. Andrew went up a narrow stairway and reached a poorly furnished small bedroom that was lit only by an oil lamp. He saw Mrs Morgan’s mother, a tall woman of nearly seventy, and the stout, elderly midwife waiting besides Mrs Morgan. Mrs Morgan’s mother offered to make him a cup of tea. He realised that she was afraid of him leaving the case, saying he would return later. He assured her that he would not run away.

Down in the kitchen he drank the tea. Though he was stressed, he realised the patient would demand all his attention. He decided to remain until everything was over. He went to the bedroom, recorded the progress and once more sat by the kitchen fire. It was a still night. The only sound that he could hear was the crackle of ember in the fireplace, the slow tick-tock of the wall clock and Morgan’s footsteps as he moved to and fro in the street outside. Mrs Morgan’s mother sat opposite him quiet and still. Her eyes, extraordinarily alive and wise, looked inquiring.

He was confused and thought about the depressing incident that he had seen at the station in Cardiff. He thought of Bramwell, who was foolishly loyal to a woman who deceived him and of Edward Page, tied to the quarrelsome Blodwen, and of Denny, living unhappily, separately from his wife. He believed that all these marriages were miserable let-downs. He wished to think of marriage as a peaceful state in which he would be happy with Christine. There was a conflict between his mind that doubted and his heart that was overflowing with emotion. This made him feel resentful and confused. He was thinking of this, when Mrs Morgan’s mother addressed him. She was thinking of her daughter, Susan Morgan. She said that Susan did not want to be given chloroform if it would harm the baby. She was really looking forward to having this baby. In fact, all of them were. Andrew assured her that it would not do any harm.

At half-past three, the nurse called for him. He went up to the bedroom and understood that it was time to begin his work. After an hour’s difficult struggle, towards the early hours of the morning, the child was bom lifeless. Andrew was horrified. He had promised them that all would be well. His face, heated with his own effort suddenly seemed to grow cold. He was indecisive, to save the child, or the mother who was in a hopeless state. There was no time to think. He had to make a quick decision. Impulsively, he gave the child to the nurse and turned his concentration towards Susan Morgan who lay collapsed and almost pulse-less. In an instant, he broke a glass ampule and injected the medicine. He struggled to restore the lifeless woman and after a few minutes of intense effort, her heartbeat became steady. Ensuring that she was safe, he quickly turned his attention to the child.

The midwife had placed it beneath the bed. Andrew swiftly knelt down and pulled out the child. It was a perfectly formed boy. The lifeless body was warm and white. The umbilical cord lay like a broken stem. He inferred that this unconscious condition was caused by the lack of oxygen and excess of carbon dioxide in the blood.

He shouted in urgency for hot water, cold water, and basins. He laid the child upon a blanket and attempted to artificially induce respiration. The nurse came with the basins, the ewer, and the big iron kettle. He poured cold water into one basin and warm water into the other. Then, with quick movements, he hurried the child from one basin to the other. This continued for fifteen minutes. Andrew was panting and his eyes were blinding with sweat.

But the child did not breathe. He felt utterly dejected. The midwife and the old woman were watching him with utter attentiveness. He remembered the old woman’s longing for a grandchild, and her daughter’s longing for this child. But the situation was grim, and efforts futile.

The floor was in a state of mess. As Andrew stumbled over a sopping towel, the midwife cried that the baby was a stillborn. But Andrew did not pay attention to her. He continued his efforts for half an hour. In his last resort, he rubbed the child with a rough towel, crushing and releasing the little chest with both his hands, trying to get breath into that limp body.

Then miraculously, the tiny chest began heaving. Andrew felt giddy with the sense of life springing beneath his fingers; it almost made him faint. He intensified his efforts till they heard the child’s cry. The nurse sobbed hysterically as Andrew handed her the child. He felt weak and dazed. The room was in a state of mess and the mother lay still on the bed, still not out of the effect of the anaesthetic. The old woman still stood against the wall with her hands together and her lips moving in silent prayer.

Andrew went downstairs, took a long drink of water and as he stepped out he found Joe standing on the pavement with an anxious, eager face. Andrew told him that both were well.

It was nearly five o’clock and a few miners were already in the streets moving out after their first of the night shift. Andrew walked with them, tired, but eternally relieved at having “done something real at last.”

Birth Summary Questions and Answers

Question 1.
Why was Joe Morgan waiting for Andrew?
Answer:
Joe Morgan and his wife had been married nearly twenty years and were expecting their first child. At nearly midnight, Joe was worried and walked up and down, waiting for Andrew to reach Bryngower.

Question 2.
“Andrew now felt dull and listless.” Give two reasons.
Answer:
On Joe Morgan’s call, Andrew, along with Joe, set out for Joe’s house. The night air was cool and deep with quiet mystery but Andrew felt dull and listless because it was past midnight and he was reflecting about his own relationship with Christine, the girl he loved.

Question 3.
What did Andrew notice as he entered Joe’s house?
Answer:
As Andrew entered the door of Number 12, he saw a narrow stair which led up to a small bedroom, clean but poorly furnished, and lit only by an oil lamp. Here, Mrs Morgan’s mother, a tall, grey-haired woman of nearly seventy, and a stout, elderly midwife waited beside the patient.

Question 4.
What was the old woman’s fear? How did Andrew reassure her?
Answer:
When the old woman returned with a cup of tea, Andrew smiled faintly. He noticed the old woman, her wisdom in experience, and realized that there had been a period of waiting.

She was afraid he would leave the case, saying he would return later. But he assured her that he would not run away.

Question 5.
What were the only sounds that Andrew heard in the thick of the night?
Answer:
As Andrew sat by the kitchen fire, he noticed that it was a still night. The only sound that he could hear was the crackle of embers in the fireplace, the slow tick-tock of the wall clock and Morgan’s footsteps as he moved to and fro in the street outside.

Question 6.
What was weighing on Andrew’s mind as he waited with the patient?
Answer:
Andrew’s thoughts were heavy and muddled. The episode he had witnessed at Cardiff station still gripped him and made him gloomy. He thought of Bramwell, foolishly loyal to a woman who deceived him. He thought of Edward Page, tied to the shrewish Blodwen and of Denny, living unhappily, apart from his wife.

Question 7.
Why does the writer say that the old woman’s ‘meditation had pursued a different course’?
Answer:
While Andrew was thinking about the futility of marriage and relationships, the old woman was thinking about her daughter. She was concerned about both the mother and the child. She said that her daughter,

Susan, did not want chloroform if it would harm the baby. She really looked forward to having the child.

Question 8.
What dilemma was Andrew caught in? How did he resolve it?
Answer:
After an hour-long struggle, the child was bom lifeless and the mother was in a critical state. Andrew was tom between his desire to attempt to save the child, and his obligation towards the mother. He overcame the dilemma, instinctively; he gave the child to the nurse and turned his attention to Susan Morgan.

Question 9.
How did he revive the mother?
Answer:
To revive Susan Morgan, who lay collapsed and almost pulse-less, Andrew smashed a glass ampule, instantly, and injected the medicine. Then he flung down the hypodermic syringe and worked, ceaselessly, to revive the almost lifeless woman. After a few minutes of intense effort, her heart strengthened and she was safe.

Question 10.
What did Andrew think was wrong with the child? What did he do?
Answer:
Andrew saw the child was a perfectly formed boy. The head lolled on a thin neck and the limbs seemed boneless. He knew that the whiteness meant asphyxia pallida. He thought of the treatment, he remembered being used at the Samaritan. He applied the same to the stillborn child.

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The Ghat of The Only World Summary in English by Amitav Ghosh

The Ghat of The Only World by Amitav Ghosh About the Author

Writer Name	Amitav Ghosh
Born	11 July 1956 (age 63 years), Kolkata
Education	Delhi School of Economics, University of Oxford
Awards	Jnanpith Award, Sahitya Akademi Award, Ananda Puraskar, Dan David Prize, Padma Shri
Nominations	Booker Prize, International Booker Prize

The Ghat of The Only World Summary in English

On 25 April 2001, for the first time Agha Shahid Ali spoke to Amitav Gosh about his impending death although he had been getting treatment for cancer for about fourteen months. Amitav had telephoned to remind him of a friend’s invitation to lunch. He was to pick Shahid from his apartment. Despite treatment he seemed healthy except for irregular momentary failures of memory. That day, the writer heard him going through his engagement book when suddenly he said that he could not see anything. After a short silence he added that he hoped this was not an indication of his death.

Although they had talked a great deal but Shahid had never before talked of death. At first Amitav Ghosh thought . that he was joking and he tried to tell him that he would be well. But Shahid went on to say that he hoped that Amitav Ghosh would write something about him, after his death.

From the window of his study Amitav Ghosh could see the building in which he had shifted just a few months back. Earlier he had been living a few miles away, in Manhattan, when his malignant brain tumour was detected.

He then decided to move to Brooklyn, to be close to his youngest sister, Sameetah, who taught at the Pratt Institute. Shahid ignored Amitav’s reassurances. It was only when he began to laugh that he realised that Shahid was very serious. He wanted to be remembered through the written word. Shahid knew that for some writers things become real only in the process of writing. With them there is an inherent battle for dealing with loss and grief. He knew that Amitav would look for reasons to avoid writing about his death. Hence he had made sure that he would write about him. Therefore, Amitav noted all he remembered of his conversations with him. It was this that made it possible to write an article on him.

Amitav was influenced by Shahid’s work long before he met him. His voice was incomparable. It was highly lyrical and disciplined. It was engaged and yet deeply inward. His was a voice not ashamed to speak in a poetic style. None other than him could have written a line like: ‘Mad heart, be brave.’

In 1998, Amitav quoted a line from The Country Without a Post Office in an article that had a brief mention about Kashmir. Then all that he knew about Shahid was that he was from Srinagar and had studied in Delhi. The writer had been at Delhi University at about the same time but they had never met. Later, some common friend had got him to meet Shahid. In 1998 and 1999 they talked several time on the phone and even met a few times.

It was only after Shahid shifted to Brooklyn, the next year, that they found that they had a great deal in common. By this time Shahid’s condition was already serious, but their friendship grew. They shared common friends, and passions. Because of Shahid’s illness even the most ordinary talks were sharply perceptive.

One day, the writer Suketu Mehta, who also lives in Brooklyn, joined them for lunch. They decided to meet regularly. Often other writers would also join them. Once when a team arrived with a television camera, Shahid said: ‘I’m so shameless; I just love the camera.’

Shahid had a magical skill to change the ordinary into the enchanting. The writer recalls when on May 21, he accompanied Iqbal and Hena, Shahid’s brother and his sister to get him home from hospital. He was in hospital again, after several unsuccessful operations, for an operation of a tumour, to ease the pressure on his brain. His head was shaved and the tumour was visible with its edges outlined by metal stitches. When he was discharged he said that he was strong enough to walk but he was weak and dizzy and could not take more than a few steps.

Iqbal went to bring the wheelchair while the rest of them held him upright. Even at that moment his spirit had not deserted him. Shahid asked the hospital orderly with the wheelchair where he was from. When the man said ‘Ecuador’, Shahid clapped his hands cheerfully and said that he always wanted to learn Spanish to read the Spanish poet and dramatist Lorca.

A sociable person, Shahid, had a party in his living room everyday. He loved people, food and the spirit of festivity. The journey from the lobby of Shahid’s building to his door was a voyage between continents. The aroma of roganjosh and haale against the background of the songs and voices that were echoed out of his apartment, coupled with his delighted welcome was unforgettable. His apartment was always full of people. He also loved the view of the Brooklyn waterfront slipping, like a ghat, into the East River, under the glittering lights of Manhattan from his seventh floor apartment.

Almost to the very end he was the centre of everlasting celebration—of talk, laughter, food and poetry. Shahid relished his food. Even when his eyesight was failing, he could tell from the smell exactly the stage of the food being cooked and also the taste. Shahid was well known for his ability in the kitchen. He would plan for days planning and preparing for a dinner party.

It was through one such party, in Arizona, that he met James Merrill, the poet who completely changed the direction of his poetry. Shahid then began to try out strict, metrical patterns and verse forms. So great was the influence on Shahid’s poetry that in the poem in which he most clearly anticipated his own death, ‘I Dream I Am At the Ghat of the Only World,’ he honoured the evocative to Merrill: ‘SHAHID, HUSH. THIS IS ME, JAMES. THE LOVED ONE ALWAYS LEAVES.’

Shahid had a special passion for the food of his region, one variant of it in particular: ‘Kashmiri food in the Pandit style’. He said it was very important to him because of a repeated dream, in which all the Pandits had vanished from the valley of Kashmir and their food had become extinct. This was a nightmare that disturbed him and he mentioned it repeatedly both in his conversation and his poetry.

However, he also mentioned his love for Bengali food. He had never been to Calcutta but was introduced to it through his friends. He felt when you ate it you could see that there were so many things that you didn’t know about the country. It was because of various kinds of food, clothes and music we have been able to make a place where we can all come together because of the good things.

To him one of the many ‘good things’ was the music of Begum Akhtar. He had met her as a teenager and she had become a long-lasting presence and influence in his life. He also admired her for her ready wit. He was himself a very witty person. Once at Barcelona airport, he was asked by a security guard what he did. He said he was a poet. The guard woman asked him again what he was doing in Spain. Writing poetry, he replied. Finally, the frustrated woman asked if he was carrying anything that could be dangerous to the other passengers. To this Shahid said: ‘Only my heart.’

These moments were precious to Shahid. He longed for people to give him an opportunity to answer questions.

He was a brilliant teacher. On May 7, the writer attended Shahid’s class when he was teaching at Manhattan’s Baruch College in 2000. Unfortunately, this was his last class that he ever taught. The class was to be a brief one for he had an appointment at the hospital immediately afterwards. It was apparent from the moment they walked

in that the students adored him. They had printed a magazine and dedicated the issue to him. But Shahid was not in the least downcast by the sadness of the occasion. He was sparkling with life and brimming with joy. When an Indian student walked in late he greeted her saying that his Tittle sub-continental’ had arrived. He pretended to faint with pleasure. He felt meeting another South Asian evoked in him patriotic feelings.

He felt that the time he spent at Penn State was sheer pleasure as there he grew as a reader, as a poet, and as a lover. He became close to a lively group of graduate students, many of whom were Indian. Later he shifted to Arizona for a degree in creative writing. After this he worked in various colleges and universities. After 1975, Shahid lived mainly in America. His brother was already there and their two sisters later joined them. However, Shahid’s parents continued to live in Srinagar where he spent the summer months every year. He was pained to see the increasing violence in Kashmir from the late 1980s onwards. This had such an impact on him that it became one of the fundamental subjects of his work. It was in his writing of Kashmir that he produced his finest work. Ironically Shahid was not a political poet by choice.

The suffering in Kashmir tormented him but he was determined not to accept the role of victim. If he had he done so, he would have benefited by becoming a regular feature on talk shows and news programmes. But he never failed in his sense of duty. He respected religion but advocated the separation of politics and religious practice. He did not seek political answers in terms of policy and solutions. On the contrary he was all for the all-encompassing and universal betterment. This secular attitude could be attributed to his upbringing. In his childhood when he wanted to create a small Hindu temple in his room in Srinagar, his parents showed equal enthusiasm. His mother bought him murtis (idols) and other things to help him make a temple in his room.

He wanted to be remembered as a national poet but not a nationalist poet. In the title poem of The Country Without a Post Office, a poet returns to Kashmir to find the keeper of a fallen minaret. In this representation of his homeland, he himself became one of the images that were revolving around the dark point of stillness. He saw himself both as the witness and the martyr with his destiny tied with Kashmir’s.

On May 5, he had a telephonic conversation with the writer. This was a day before an important test (a scan) that would reveal the course of treatment. The scan was scheduled for 2.30 in the afternoon. The writer could get in touch with him only the next morning. Shahid told him clearly that his end was near and he would like to go back to Kashmir to die. His voice was calm and peaceful. He had planned everything. He said he would get his passport; settle his will as he didn’t want his family to go through any trouble after his death. And after settling his affairs he would go to Kashmir. He wanted to go back as because of the feudal system in Kashmir there would be so much support. Moreover his father was there. He did not want his family to have to make the journey after his death, like they had to with his mother.

However later, because of logistical and other reasons, he changed his mind about returning to Kashmir. He was content to be buried in Northampton. But his poetry underlined his desire to die and be buried in Kashmir.

The last time the writer saw Shahid was on 27 October, at his brother’s house in Amherst. He could talk erratically. He had come to terms with his approaching end. There were no signs of suffering or conflict. He was surrounded by the love of his family and friends and was calm, satisfied and at peace. He had once expressed his desire to meet his mother in the afterlife, if there was one. This was his supreme comfort. He died peacefully, in his sleep, at 2 a.m. on December 8.

Although his friendship with the writer spanned over a short duration, it left in him a huge void. He recalls his presence in his living room particularly when he read to them his farewell to the world: ‘I Dream I Am At the Ghat of the Only World…’

The Ghat of The Only World Summary Questions and Answers

Question 1.
When and why did Shahid mention his death to the writer?
Answer:
The first time that Shahid mentioned his approaching death was on 25 April 2001 although he had been under treatment for malignant brain tumour for about fourteen months. He was going through his engagement book when suddenly he said that he couldn’t see anything. Then after a pause he added that he . hoped this didn’t mean that he was dying.

Question 2.
What was the strange request that Shahid made to the writer?
Answer:
After Shahid broached the subject of death for the first time with the writer, he did not know how to respond. The writer tried to reassure him that he would be well but Shahid interrupted him and in an inquiring tone said that he hoped after his death, he would write something about him.

Question 3.
How did the writer realize that Shahid was serious about him writing about his death?
Answer:
When the writer tried reassuring him, Shahid ignored his reassurances. When he began to laugh the writer realised that he was very serious about what he had said. He wanted the writer to remember him not through the spoken words of memory and friendship, but through the written word.

Question 4.
Why did he want the writer to write something?
Answer:
Perhaps, Shahid knew all too well that for those writers for whom things become real only in the process of writing, there is an inherent struggle to deal with loss and sorrow. He knew that the writer’s nature would have led him to search for reasons to avoid writing about his death.

Question 5.
Where was Shahid staying during his illness?
Answer:
Earlier Shahid was staying a few miles away, in Manhattan. But after the tests revealed that he had a malignant brain tumour, he decided to move to Brooklyn, to be close to his youngest sister, Sameetah, who was teaching at the Pratt Institute, a few blocks away from the street where the writer lived.

Question 6.
‘Shahid, I will: I’ll do the best I can.’ What best did the writer want to do?
Answer:
The writer would have had various excuses for not writing about Shahid. He would have said that he was not a poet, their friendship was recent or that there were many others who knew him much better and would be writing from greater understanding and knowledge. Shahid seemed to have guessed this and insisted . that he wrote about him. The writer promised to try his best in doing justice to the memory of Shahid in his piece of writing.

Question 7.
What did the writer do in order to fulfill his promise to Shahid?
Answer:
The writer, from the day he was committed to writing an article, picked up his pen, noted the date, and wrote down everything he remembered of each conversation after that day. This he continued to do for the next few months. This record made it possible for him to fulfill the pledge he made that day.

Question 8.
What did Amitav Ghosh think of Shahid, the poet?
Answer:
Amitav Ghosh was introduced to Shahid’s work long before he met him. His 1997 collection, The Country Without a Post Office, had made a powerful impression on him. His voice was like none that had ever heard before. It was at once lyrical and fiercely disciplined, engaged and yet deeply inward. He knew of no one else who would even conceive of publishing a line like.- ‘Mad heart, be brave.’

Question 9.
‘….his illness did not impede the progress of our friendship.’ Why does the writer feel so?
Answer:
The writer got to know Shahid only after he moved to Brooklyn the next year, as he, too, lived in the same neighbourhood. Then they began to meet sometimes for meals and quickly discovered that they had a great deal in common. By this time of course Shahid’s condition was already serious, but despite that their friendship grew rapidly.

Question 10.
What were the interests that Shahid and Amitav shared?
Answer:
They had many a common friends, in India, America, and elsewhere, they shared a love for roganjosh, Roshanara Begum and Kishore Kumar; a mutual indifference to cricket and an equal attachment to old Bombay films.