THE RAINY SEASON

THE RAINY SEASON

Outline:-

1.      The feeling of relief when the rains end the heat.

2.      The activity of cultivators: everything growing.

3.      Effect on animals, insects; on the mind.

4.      Is a period when certain diseases abound.

We all know the feeling that the hot weather has lasted too long. It seems that we cannot endure any more of the pitiless sun, and, when the first cool breeze begins towards the end of June, we know that the rains are not far off. The monsoon rain is a fairly regular arrival, but if the first showers are postponed by a week or a fortnight, that is bound to be a period of disappointment and deferred hopes.

With the first fall of rain, the cultivators become busy. Up and down the fields they go behind their faithful bullocks, guiding their old fashioned ploughs and breaking up the earth to receive the fresh air and water, it is wonderful how quickly the green grass begin to clothe the ground again. Last week the ground was bare and brown, with the lean cattle searching in vain for nourishment. It looked as if no life could be left there. Yet here are the green shoots already, springing up to dress the earth once more in its fair, green carpet. Other things, flowers and vegetables, spring up with a rapidity that is amazing to one who has been accustomed to the slower growth under the milder sun.

Animal life, too, is revived and stimulated. From the river bed, from the neighboring pools, comes the song of the frogs. At night it sounds as if a number of people were knocking stones together, and they keep it up without intermission. “Chak, chak chak,” was the ever such a monotonous song? But there are many ways of expressing joy. The snakes and lizards, too, which have been lying asleep throughout the summer, are active and moving about once more. Insect life is on the increase. Flies and mosquitoes love the rainy season, and that is why dysentery and fevers are more common at this time of the year. The heat of the summer is a great preventive of disease.

On the whole, while the rainy season is good and necessary for the processes of Nature, it is not stimulating and refreshing in equal proportion to man. The dull skies and incessant rain are depressing, and we have not such a feeling of energy and strength as in the spring. But it seems to be a law of Nature that we are never quite satisfied. 

HOW PEARLS ARE FORMED

HOW PEARLS ARE FORMED

Outline:-

1.      Where are the4 shell-fish called oysters found?

2.      How does the oyster come to make a pearl?

3.      How do men get those pearls from the shells?

   Often people forget that the beautiful pearls which adorn the fingers and the ears of rich ladies were made by a humble little shell-fish It is the oyster which produces this lovely gem, a thing that most of us have only seen in the shops of big Karachi Jewelers. It is wonderful process. When the oyster is a tiny thing, it floats about on the surface of the sea, without any shell, just like a piece of jelly. When the shell begins to grow, the oyster is too heavy to swim, and sinks down to the bottom. There it fastens itself to a rock or to some other object, and opens its shell to let in the sea-water, which has in it little things which form the food of the oyster.

Sometimes the fish gets more than it wishes, for a tiny parasite or grain of sand enters the shell and presses against the body of the oyster, causing. The poor oyster cannot get rid of it; and as it cannot bear to be tickled by the substance, it sets to work to cover it over and make it smooth. From the oyster’s?? a fluid which forms a covering for the rough grain of sand, and this  covering hardens. Then more and more layers of the fluid are applied, like successive coats of paint. They also become hard, and in lime that little grain has been formed into a beautiful pearl. It has grown bigger with each succeeding coat of the fluid, and this is the kind of pearl that we see in the bracelets of ladies. But there is another kind of pearl. This is the lining of the oyster shell. It is called mother of pearl, and is used to make ornaments and buttons and the handles of knives and forks.

The oyster’s shell is very rough inside, and he must have smooth bed on which to lie and so he sends out his fluid to harden and to coat the inside of the shell, smooth and beautiful like the loveliest enamel. The best pearl oysters are found off the coast of Australia, New Guinea, Borneo, the Philippines and Ceylon.

Some of the divers, who are able to catch an oyster with its shell open drop in little things to become coated with pearls. If you ever visit London, go to the Natural History Museum in South Kensington, and you may see there some shells into which the chins put the figures of little idols. The idols are now quite coated over with mother of pearl. The outside of shell wears away in time, revealing the inside coating. But as the outside wears away, the oyster keeps building up the mother-of-pearl inside, so that shell shall not become thinner or less safe for his home beneath the sea. 

POPULARITY AS A TEST OF MERIT

POPULARITY AS A TEST OF MERIT

Outline:-

1.      What is the real meaning of “popularity”?

2.       Have the greatest men been popular?

3.      Are not bad and worthless men sometimes popular?

4.      Can we arrive at definite conclusion?

In daily life, we often hear it said of someone “He is a good fellow and immensely popular”. Can we decide form this that a man who is very popular is really a good and deserving man? Is it not possible that a man who is good and deserving may be sometimes very unpopular? Popular means “belonging to the people”, and it must be admitted that the masses of the people are not always the best judges of real merit. The Roman emperors sometimes gave free food and displays of games to the people to buy popularity, and they were often evil men. Yet, in a sense, they succeeded in making themselves popular.

Let us look at two of the greatest in our own times, Sir Sayyed Ahmad and Hitler, the German Fuehrer. Sir Sayyed was a man of the most saintly character, working for the poor and suffering, thinking nothing of his own needs and safety, preaching peace and love. Hitler was furious militarist, planning world domination, prepared to sacrifice the lives of millions to gratify his ambitions. The contrast could not well be greater and they were far apart in their aims and ideals. Yet both men were immensely popular, that is, they each had virtue and evil can both be popular, but they will attract vastly different types of support.

Sometimes popularity is a cheap affair, gained by weakness and at the expense of truth. A weak master who exercise no control may have a certain type of popularity. Dr. Arnold of Rugby School was a severe headmaster, quick to punish and stern in his character. it is related that an old pupil, on being asked what he thought of his late testimonial is better than the cheap popularity which consists of the applause of the foolish. True men are quick to appreciate justice. Many of post carriers unpopularity. How often duty, do we hear of a popular judge or tax-collector? To do your duty, and, “Because right is right, to follow right,” is far better than to try please people by being lenient and giving concessions at the wrong time. 

IMPROVEMENT I SHOULD LIKE TO SEE IN OUR TOWN

IMPROVEMENT I SHOULD LIKE TO SEE IN OUR TOWN

Outline:

1.      In our town, first improvement, housing of the poor.

2.      Fine street, but spoiled by selfish motor drivers.

3.      Bad drains or no drains. Overcrowding.

4.      Beggars. Dirty and hungry dogs.

My home town of Pasrur has a good area, with nice streets and some attractive shops. There it gives an impression of efficiency and neatness. Around my home there are some pleasant houses each in its own little plot of land, with a wall or a hedge. But visit the other end of the towns, where railway workers and poor labourers live. They are in small uncomfortable houses, without windows, and with no garden or compound. In brief, we have a slum area, and as long as there is one standard of living for well to do people and another for the poor, there will be discontent arising from the comparison. Some progressive towns have started to clear away their slum areas.

In our shopping streets, a person walking may have to jump hurriedly to avoid a motor ca dashing through at forty miles an hour. Even if it is moving at a reasonable speed, dust fills the air for a few minutes and as it is setting down another car comes. The blowing of motor-horns is always with us, deafening the ears. A law should be passed limiting the speed of motorists in the streets to ten miles an hour, and forbidding the use of the horn.

In the poor quarter, we still see that horror, the open drain. Filth runs down a little channel by the footpath, and small children play over it. One may ask whether we are living in the middle ages or the twentieth century. We have cholera and dysentery still destroying children, because such things exist. I should at once try by all means to get an adequate drainage system for all quarters of the town, as part of a bold public-health service.

There are no public parks or gardens where poor people can go in the evenings. Although the one public garden is open to all it is too far from their homes, and they seem to shrink from coming there to mix with their wealthier brothers. I want to see open spaces, with grass and trees, in all areas. Children should be allowed to play freely, without being ordered off.

In some of the streets, beggars, still follow and whine for aims. They should, in every case, be investigated. If they are worthless idlers robbing the good natured public, they should be kept in an institution and made to work. There are, too, many unclean and ownerless dogs going about the streets. These are a danger to health, and should also be removed. There are some of the foremost reforms I want to see in Pasrur, my native town.    

WHICH IS BETTER, WEALTH OR HEALTH

WHICH IS BETTER, WEALTH OR HEALTH

Outline:

1.         Money can buy many good things; it cannot buy happiness.

2.         A wealthy man is often a selfish man.

3.         Bodily health comes from mental health, not from money.

4.         Conclusion, wealth is nothing in comparison with health.

Many of us have heard the story of the king who asked that everything he touched might be turned into gold. The boon was granted to him, when he found, to his horror, that even his food changed into gold as his lips touched it. So he was in danger of starving in the midst of his riches. Many of the richest men are in a similar position. The scheming to get money, the neglect of simple pleasure and exercise, has left them with weak health and feeble digestion. All their money cannot buy back again the health and peace of mind they have lost.

The English poet, Milton, said:

“The mind is its own place and in itself

Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven”

Many are able to understand that only when health has gone, for when young we are inclined to take it for granted. We think of good health as the ordinary state of affairs. There is nothing so good to the rich is not contented. The village workers, going out to the hard work of the field, faces his toil with contentment. He knows that his wife and family are well, and that his labour will provide enough for them. The rich businessman starts the day in anxiety because some of his investments are doubtful. The competition of rivals may lessen his profits; the latest taxation take away more of his income, so he lies awake at night troubling his mind over his bank balance. The lot of the villager is far better than the life of such a man.

Money can buy man useful things if it is freely and wisely expended. We can make the lives of those in our immediate circle more happy, we can help to feed and clothe the poor and hungry who are around us in such numbers. Men like the Quaid-i-Azam spent all their wealth for the welfare of others. How much money did he possess when he died? At the same time, it is not everyone who can practise the severe self-denial of Tariq-uddunia and money can be wisely used to help one’s self and others. The example of the old sages teaches us that wealth and possessions are delusions, and that only true riches are those of the spirit. It is said that a rich man cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. 

MY IDEA OF A WELL-SPENT DAY

MY IDEA OF A WELL-SPENT DAY

Outline:

1.      Great variety of answers possible.

2.      Some think of themselves, others think of other people.

3.      My own idea is that a day is well-spent which has had good work, good play, and good rest.

4.      The answer will depend on what one thinks to be the true purpose of life.

There is an old Latin proverb, “Quot hominess, tot sententiae”. The meaning of this is, “From so many men, there will be so many opinions.” People are pursuing different objects, and there are many various ideas as to what things are worthwhile. The rich man may think that a day has been well spent in which he adds to his already great wealth. The poor man returning from the fields may be happy in the sense of having finished his toil and looking forward to an evening’s rest. The social worker will be pleased with a day in which he has managed to raise the status and brighten the lives of a number of poor people. There will be an endless variety of ideas on how time should be well spent.

As an average individual, I have a number of different interests. When I am in the class-room, I like to work as well as I can and to profit from the lessons. After school hours, I like to play cricket and hockey in their seasons, and it gives me pleasure to take part in a good game. The rest of the evening is usually spent in some activity such as a debate, a drama, or in some hobby. My hobby is fretwork at present. If I feel that the day’s work in class has been good, that I have played well in time the hockey game, win or lose, and derived some pleasure from speaking in a debate or listening to dramatic rehearsals, then I feel that the day has been well spent and I go to bed happy. A certain humorous writer in England once made up a rhyme about the ideal of the British workman:

“Eight hours work, eight hours play, eight hours sleep, and eight shilling a day.”

and, ignoring the fact that the same worker now gets much more than eight shillings every day, the lines express the desire for a balanced life, in which work, recreation, rest and physical comforts are all present.

But man is a restless animal and his intellect always spurs him higher and higher. What satisfies us in youth will be insufficient in later years, and the answer to this question depends on the individual. 

MAN’S ENEMY, THE FLY

MAN’S ENEMY, THE FLY

Outline:

1.      Flies breed in dirt and are born in filth.

2.      The natural food of flies is often dirty.

3.      Yet they alight freely on human food and on the faces and bodies of men. Flies mean disease. They carry germs.

4.      Need for complete covering of food, attack breeding places.

  During the great war, a pamphlet was issued in the army. With the title (in what was called” Roman Urdu”). “Is makhi ko maro.” The army authorities had been impelled to publish this by the fact that many soldiers were suffering from dysentery, typhoid and stomach complaints. Most of those troubles arose from food and drink containing impurities and germs, and those germs were carried on to the food in most cases by the ordinary fly. In war, diseases caused by the fly and its infection cause more casualties on the whole than the bullets and bombs of the enemy.

The fly lays its eggs on decaying flesh or vegetable matter. Thus young flies begin life in dirty surroundings. That taste for filth remains with the fly, for it is always ready to settle on a dead animal, on a heap of manure, or on a festering wound. The next thing it sits upon may be the chapatti you are about to eat, or the fruit that is on a plate in your house. Thus the disease germs from the dirtiest objects plate in your house. Thus the disease germs from the dirtiest objects in the neighbourhood are conveyed to your food. Can you afford to have an enemy in your homes?

What a sight was seen only a few months ago by a medical officer of health when visiting a certain bazaar! Along a little street of houses and small shops ran on open drain. Along the drain ran dirty water from the houses, and children openly sat down to perform the office of nature in it. Flies buzzed all along the course of he drain. Near was a little shop with sweetmeats and grains for sale. A large flat basket was filled with jelebi, and there were hundreds of flies sitting on the sweetmeants? Is there any wonder that the hospitals are full of cholera and dysentery cases, and that so many children die in their first  year of life?

The fly must be declared an enemy. Around your houses, no rubbish or waste food must be left in which it can breed. Your food must be kept covered, and your house sprayed with some insecticide like Flit. You must refuse to buy from shopkeepers who allow their goods to be exposed to swarms of flies and you must explain this to them. Only by such vigorous steps can your health and the health of your family be safeguarded. 

THE LIFE OF A MOSQUITO

THE LIFE OF A MOSQUITO

Outline:

1.      The mosquito originates in green pools or in any moist soil or vegetable matter.

2.      It is a bloodsucker, and travels from one living to another.

3.      Two kinds; the culex and the essanofele.    

4.      Only resolute and determined action can end malaria.

The mosquito was born in April, in the green scum on the surface of a pool near the road way. Someone had dug that hole to get soil for his courtyard,  and the rain had then filled it up. Many other mosquitoes were due to leave the pool that day, but just before our mosquito departed, a man from the Municipality arrived with a spray and a tin of black oil. When he had sprayed the pool thousands of the young mosquitoes were killed. But our mosquito flew gaily into the bazaar (market).

He felt hungry soon, for our mosquito was as blood-thirsty as a little tiger. He alighted on a poor, hungry-looking beggar and, with his long pointed sucker began to drink his blood. The beggar was a sick man and was not troubled. He was so accustomed to insect bites that he hardly felt this mosquito drawing off his blood. But the mosquito did not wait long, for his instinct told him that the blood of the poor man was thin and not good. So he found a small boy aged ten, sitting in a tonga while his father did some shopping. He enjoyed this much better, as the boy was young and healthy. When the boy had a sharp attach of malaria ten days later, his father knew nothing about the little mosquito in the bazaar.  

  

Our mosquito made no buzzing noise when he flew round his victims when he plunged his piercer into them, they hardly felt it, so fine it was. That was why he was so dangerous. He had a cousin,  another kind of mosquito called the culex, who always made a sharp buzzing noise and who gave a sharp sting like a wasp. But the sharp bite of the culex, although unpleasant did not carry the germ of malaria as a rule. our little striped friend was the true carrier.

During the day, he sheltered in the dark buses or in some dark and dusty corner of a house. As the sun set, he would come quietly out and fly around, as anxious for blood as the leopard which lives on the rocky hill beside the village. he enjoyed life, finding many people around on whom to satisfy his appetite. He went from a sick man to a healthy child, and back again, carrying the germs of one to the other. But one day a servant carrying a Flit gun came and sprayed the corner in which the little mosquito was sleeping, so he died suddenly. But how much disease and suffering had he spread among men, women and children during his short life in our town!