National Integration

          India, a multi-religious, multi-lingual and multi-racial country, has always enjoyed the essential unity of cultured amidst diversity that has kept her people united. Great religious and social leaders have; by their preaching from time immemorial, enabled the masses of India to imbibe the spirit of brotherhood. But of late, narrow religious and regional feelings plague the country. Divisive forces are rampant in the Punjab, in the North East, region and in few other parts of the country. This is highly detrimental to the existence of India as a nation. This problem of dissension and disintegration can only be solved by subduing the regional and parochial feelings. Forces of disruption are fed by poverty, lack of education, economic distress and by the indiscriminate partiality of the Centre. To eradicate this, there is the need of alleviating economic distress of the people, but greater is the need of spreading education. Emotional integration of the country as of the highest importance. A genuine sense of oneness of India and a feeling of kinship between one Indian and another should be instilled, in the hearts of the people. This line of action should be started immediately so that the future generation can be taught in this line. Our smaller loyalty is to our states, to our languages, to our religion, doubt, — but our larger and inviolable loyalty is to our entire country— this should be the maxim of all Indians.

A Rainy Day

              The sky was overcast with clouds and I knew It was going to be a heavy rainy day. It was July, The month of rains and raincoats. I did not dare to stir out, but just then came my friend Suvro. He said he had with him two guest cards for a cultural show at the music hall. So we two must go I pointed out to the threatening clouds outside and tried to dissuade him, but to no use.
              I was a fool to put trust in his words. For no sooner had we reached the Street corner than it began to drip-drop. It developed soon into a downpour. We stood squeezed in a bus stand. The blasts of wind gave us a thorough drenching. It seemed the whole sky was melting into rain water and we had been back to the days of Noah’s ark. The road looked like a pool all along. Some paper boats were flowing down the water. Perhaps some children had put them on the flowing water for play. Some vehicles got stuck and looked helplessly around.
              I could see a lone bird that looked afraid, perching on a wayside veranda. I felt sympathy for this poor creature. My friend had lost his optimism by now, for it was still raining incessantly. The music of the rain was the sole substitute for the function at the music hull. I and my friend stood stranded for hours in that bus stop and cursed our lot.

Man and Trees

              Man and trees are inseparable. There is a long association between man and trees. Roth man and trees are dependent on each other and one cannot live without the other. Man exhales carbon die-oxide which trees inhale Trees give out Oxygen which man inhales. Trees maintain the eco-system.

              Trees give us wood, fruits, shelter and what not. From wood we made furniture, doors and windows, ships and so many things. Such things are of great economic value. Trees give shelter to animals, prevent soil erosion, attract rains and add to the beauty of nature. But missives deforestation all over the world is now polluting the environment and making the earth unfit for living. It is also causing much economic loss.

              Environmental pollution and economic losses have now alerted all the world. So massive programmes of Afforestation have been taken all over the world. Every year there is a day for tree plantation. Environmental pollution have become a thing of great concern in India today. So we have taken up programmes for tree plantation. Vano Mahotsava is now observed all over the country. Saplings are planted here and there beside the roads. People are urged to plant and protect trees. Our forests should also be preserved properly.

Obedience

              Obedience means: submission to superior authority or to follow unconditionally an acknowledged code of conduct. In a word, to do what a superior or senior asks us to do is obedience. Obedience, in fact, forms the basis of discipline in the family, at school, or in society.
              Obedience is one of the precious traits in human character. It does not originate from slavishness or fear of punishment. It has its roots in love and loyalty or gratitude and regard for sense of duty. In the family, obedience is always due to our parents or elders because we love them and feel grateful to them for what they do for us. A student at school obeys his teachers because he respects them for what they do to coach his mind and ford sis character. We obey the laws of society because that helps us to live together honorably and peacefully.
              Obedience has a great formative influence on character. It instills into us the qualities of co-operation, tolerance and selflessness. By obeying our parents or elders, teachers or seniors, superiors or the laws of the society, we only learn to control or drill our caprices. That is how we learn to live a co-operative life and grow up to be law-abiding, respectable citizens.
              The success or failure of a human organization certainly depends on two supplementary virtues, — discipline and obedience equally of the subordinates flout the seniors’ instructions, if a soldier challenges his commander’s orders, there will be a total collapse of the society or government. Every social institution or governmental organization needs somebody to give order and somebody to obey and thus human civilization survives and thrives collective.

Mass Literacy Campaign

             Illiteracy is the worst problem of a country. The illiterate people are the heaviest burden of the nations. No population with its major bulk of illiterate people can substantially help a country in its march ahead — however big the population may be. Illiteracy makes the people superstitious and back-dated in thoughts and beliefs. Illiterate persons cannot ably participate in the glorious task of nation-building. They alway tend to cause the socio-economic retardation of a country. It is, therefore, one of the most formidable problems a country can suffer from. 
             Illiteracy always stem from stark poverty, negligence of the rulers and also from lack of consciousness, both of the government and of the people. The government may at times will fully design to keep the major portion of the population in the darkness of illiteracy so that labour can be obtained at a cheap rate, and also for the reason that the people will not dare rise in anti-government movements. Sometimes, the policy of the government is such that the rules only safeguard the interests of the privileged classes throwing the backward classes to the wolves, illiteracy is a sure outcome of such governmental indifference and partiality.
             Spread of free education and foundation of schools in the countryside is one of the sure solutions to this problem. Of all the Indian states, our state government has been regularly allotting the biggest chunk of the annual budget for the propagation of education, especially, at the primary stage. They are already being conducted on the governmental level. Furthermore, a school for a village is the avowed policy of our government. The teacher, have been granted handsome salary so that they can fully dedicate themselves to the cause of propagating mass-education. The public charitable and the social welfare organizations have come forward with the free adult education schemes. The students also have come forward with their fullest cooperation in this realm of spreading literacy amongst the poor villagers and slum-dwellers.

Importance of Vernacular in Education

            Introduction of English as the most important medium of education in India came as a blessing as it promoted a nationalistic outlook of unity amongst the millions of Indians who were hitherto divided by diverse languages, religions and creeds. But, it was also a curse in disguise. It made people with English education look down upon their own folk who had not schooling in English. Education in vernacular was neglected. Western culture and thoughts predominated, in every phase of life. Sheer imitation of European way of life prevailed in Indian society.

            Knowledge of English was, and is, no doubt, still essential for the Indians. But its retention as the medium of instruction in post-Independence India has no meaning actually. Most countries of the world proudly and efficiently use vernacular as the medium of education. But in India, owing to its multilingualism and colonial past, a strong controversy still lingers over the rightful status of vernaculars as the medium of instruction. Even today, after sixty-six years of independence, English medium schools are mushrooming and a big section of our affluent people feels proud that their children study in English medium institutions.

            English, by history and tradition, occupies a very important and prestigious position in our social life. Yet, it should not and must not be the medium of education. The soul of a nation can never attain its highest development and brightest expression through an alien medium. It is essentially the mother tongue that our poets and literatures shall speak in while they invoke the new age. Our scientists shall explain new inventions in our mother tongue while it is in our vernacular that our thinkers shall pour out their precious knowledge. This alone can intake our study truly fruitful. Tender-aged students cannot study and learn easily through a foreign medium. Use of vernacular will infallibly grow greater hope and confidence in our people. And then, the age-old tumbling blocks of illiteracy ignorance, superstition and orthodoxy will automatically vanish forever.

Reading of Biographies

            A biography is a book on a celebrity written by a competent writer who knows his subject intimately and authoritatively. It is the written record of man. Hence a biography is always a memoir, a precious legacy handed down to the people. It is a valuable popular document to be investigated into. There is another type of biography, an autobiography. It is written by one about oneself. But both the types lead to the identical goal to furnish the readers with the authentic exposition of the self in the truest perspective of the contemporary society. So, the study of a biography or of an autobiography has twofold contributions — a thorough study of an entity, as well as, a vivid presentation of a contemporary society with its values, ethics and aesthetics.
            Biographies of all sorts are no mere diaries or chronicles. They possess intrinsic values — they interpret cultural norms of their societies in the light of the historical relevance of their own time-Spans. Biographies are not merely euphonic eulogies pronounced on their master-character, they practically embody the comprehensive explanations of the ‘self’ in relation to his pertinent phase of time. Hence, such records have epochal and epical contributions of forming the norms of perennial values. Such books contain connotative as well as denotative meanings. They always tend to possess the strength of ‘soul’ or ‘clean vital’ to ennoble the morality of the readers, to, imbue them with the spirit of deeper dedication and greater sacrifice for all.
            Biographies and autobiographies are integral part of literature. They are the real introductions of ‘selves’ to their readers. Autobiographies like ‘My Experiment with Truth’ (M. K. Gandhi), ‘Chhelebela’ (Rabindraiiath Tagore), ‘My Struggle’ (Hitler), or of Isadora Duncan, Pandit Ravi Sankar and of many other celebrities as well as Biographies of Ramkrishna Paramahansa (by Romain Holland or Achinta Kumar Sengupta), of P. B. Shelley (named Aerial), of Machiavelli (by many writers), ‘Memories’ (Lenin’s life by his wife), of Julias Fuchik (by many authors), of Ramkinkar Baij (by Samaresh Basu) and of many other personalities written by competent writers offer as happy reading as ennobling values and ideals. 
            The grown-ups as well as the young should cultivate the habit of reading biography and auto-biography. The readers will positively find in these books some ideologies to guide them, some vision to lead them and some morals to become their props and pivots to rely and rest upon in the moments of stress and struggle.