Answer any two of the following in 80-100 words each:

(i) How does the rhythm of waves, birds and insects become the million fold chorus of life?

(ii) Explain: “If you don’t expect too much too quickly, you’ll find your freedom, a room of your own.”

(iii) Rakesh was deeply aware of the sacrifices made by his parents to give him an education. How did he show his gratitude and devotion to them? Give examples from the text to justify your answer.

(iv) “Therefore the school and the teacher must guard against employing the easy method of creating individual ambition in order to induce the pupils to diligent work.” Elaborate this view of Einstein on Education with reference to the text.

(i) The rhythm of waves, birds and insects become the million fold chorus. It has the capacity of giving us pleasure. It feels to have become a part of universal music; they also take us back to our childhood. Hum of insects can delight us owing to the surroundings they are heard and with the past events associated with the sounds. Besides, when we hear these sounds, something in our blood and breath responds to the rhythm of these sounds. As the hum of insects and noises of birds are associated with nature and seasons, so are they connected to our life, right from our childhood. When we grow up, these sounds occasionally pull us back to our childhood. In a way, our happiness, other than that achieved from people, has its origin in nature, in spring and summer, in the hum and noises of insects and birds.

(ii) If you don’t expect too much too quickly, you’ll find your freedom, a room of your own. They move single-mindedly towards their dream by working constantly. But greed and over ambition often spoils the game. Every dream takes its time. Ruskin Bond goes philosophical with dreams. We belong to a world that teaches “human wants are unlimited” and “desire is the root cause of all evils.” The end of desire is the ultimate disaster. In the rat-race after achievements, men seldom care for his doom. The more we win, the more do we lose; the maximum we conquer, the least we keep. The best choice is, dream, but work for it; win but not more than you need. A beggar asks a wandering boy, a dreamer, about his dream. The boy tells him he dreamt of owning a room of his own. The beggar warns him – after owning the room, you will dream for a house of your own, then a territory of your own. It is all possible but in most cases this ends up in tragedy – you lose all your achievements one day and become a beggar. If you own less, your loss will be bearable but the more you own, the more you lose.

(iii) Rakesh was deeply aware of the sacrifices made by his parents to give him an education. “The Devoted Son” centres around Dr. Rakesh. He comes from a poor Indian village. His father, Varma, works as a vegetable vendor, and spent many years dreaming of having an educated son. Rakesh is the first in the family to get any education. Sadly, it’s not long before Rakesh has his son that his mother passes away. Varma takes it especially hard. Rakesh is pleased he at least made her proud before she died, but he worries for his father and how he’ll cope. Now that Rakesh has a family of his own, he doesn’t have as much time to dedicate to Varma, but he does what he can as his father’s health declines. He doesn’t want to lose any time he has left with him, and he puts his medical skills to good use. Rakesh imposes a ban on sweets for Varma, to look after his stomach. However, Varma tries to get them through Rakesh’s son, which enrages Rakesh. He worries that his father will make his grandson less honourable than Rakesh. Tensions rise between father and son, and Rakesh starts resenting how much time he spends looking after him—although he keeps doing it. However, Rakesh doesn’t give up on his father—instead, he becomes more devoted to him. He wants his son to have a good relationship with Varma, just as he did as a boy. As relationships deteriorate, Rakesh must choose whether to stay devoted to his father or leave him to die on his own. Rakesh chooses to help his father. Although Rakesh can’t make his father better, and he’s struggling to keep his own life under control, he doesn’t abandon him. He shows Varma the same faith once shown to him when he wanted to become a doctor. When Rakesh must finally let Varma go, right at the end, he knows he did all he could for him.

(iv) Einstein begins his speech on education by saying that knowledge of truth alone is not enough for active men. He believes that our knowledge must be renewed by continuous effort to stop it from loss. Sometimes schools simply function like instruments for transferring a certain maximum quantity of knowledge to the growing generation. This kills learning and the school. A school should develop in the young individuals those qualities and capabilities which are of value for the welfare of the society. If a school adopts to teach all the students the subjects and follow the same aims, it means that the individuality of the child is destroyed and the individual becomes a mere tool of the community. A society of standardized individuals without personal originality and personal aims would be a poor community without possibilities for development. Instead of shaping similar individuals, the aim of the school must be the training of independently thinking and acting individuals who see in the service of the community their highest life problem. Einstein advises such schools to place independent thinking in the lead, not just the acquisition of special knowledge. Therefore the school and the teacher must guard against employing the easy method of creating individual ambition in order to induce the pupils to diligent work.