Summary of INDIAN CIVILIZATION AND CULTURE -- an essay written by a global personality Mahatma Gandhi

    In the present essay, Mahatma Gandhi has talked about how sound and healthy the foundation of Indian civilization is. He has put the features of Indian civilization and culture in a very genuine and convincing manner. The English he has used proves him to a master of pure and idiomatic English. The present essay also reveals him as an original thinker. During the end of the Indian freedom struggle, Mahatma Gandhi emerged as a dominating personality in Indian politics. He was the figure followed by millions of Indians at that time. Even the other distinguished personalities of that time having disagreement with him respected him. He emerged as the kind of personality who was successful at using truth and non-violence as the chief and unique weapons against the British rule in India. His words were observed by millions of the masses.

    The essay starts with Mahatma Gandhi's belief that the civilization India has evolved is in no way inferior to other civilizations of the world.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/157Lbo7vWlo3l6GvmG9Sq8osSsp2JYmy6OftwwXvWujA/edit?usp=drivesdk

Go up in smoke 

It's an idiom. It has two different meanings.

> To be completely burnt.

example sentences-----

The whole house went up in smoke.

That big library just went up in smoke in a moment. 

He set the letter on fire. It just went up in smoke in a second.

All the important documents went up in smoke in front of our eyes before we could even blink.

Her new and beautiful dress went up in smoke.

> If your plans, hopes etc. go up in smoke, they fail completely.

example sentences-------

His plan of becoming the owner of the whole property just went up in smoke.

All her hope went up in smoke.

He wanted to start his own business with the money he had saved. The money got stolen and all his plan went up in smoke.

All her excitement about her birthday went up in smoke when she lost in the game and failed in the weekly test.

If you are not careful, all your plan will go up in smoke.

Her dream to become an I.A.S officer goes up in smoke .

All their dreams of living abroad went up in smoke.

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Points to enhance the productivity of learning at schools.

Points to make sure over-all development of children, keeping in mind the perspective of inclusiveness.

• Sports needs to be given due importance.
• Extra-curricular activities can be organised.
• Right from the beginning, students should have something significant to do. It's not right for students to wait till they become grown-ups or complete their education. Schools should begin some projects that can really work on the ground level and students may get opportunities to engage themselves in things of social benefits.  
• Yoga classes must be conducted.
• No child should feel excluded. Students often make a group of their choice and prefer to stick to the same. They do not mingle with the students of different likes and dislikes. Teachers need to make sure that they get along with the students of unlike minds as well.
• Teachers must have the spark and brilliance that naturally can make students observe the life of values and principles.
• There must be no compromise with the quality of teachers.
• A friendly relationship needs to be established with students. For this, teachers are required to go to the level of students' thinking ability and Interests and the psychology of their minds.

Over to the readers now.

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 An idea is in trend these days----'One should, or rather likes to do only what is pleasant or fun to do.'

Sounds interesting. Right? This is what we all want, that too, unanimously.

But, wait a second.---------

Things that are good to us and can ensure quality life and healthy future, are often found to be tough, tiring and bitter in experience. Good things require extra efforts and will power. One needs to be active. And in being active, you have to go against your mind that naturally tends to remain in passive state. On the contrary, our mind naturally tends to do fun things. And fun things help us enjoy the present time. But, the attitude of enjoying the present only is not enough. Wisdom says our way of life should be in accordance with the one that leads to the path of progress and betterment.

So, we can see that there are two perspectives towards leading your life. And out of these two outlooks, it often becomes difficult to select one, because tempting mottoes are presented in favor of the first outlook. And such seemingly attractive ideas are already doing the rounds on the virtual platform of our collective mind. 

In such a situation of dillema, our Indian culture comes up with a perfect solution. There are two ways of leading your life: Preya Marg and Serena Marg. 

Preya Marg serves things which are attractive and pleasant, but those are poisonous in the long run. Preya things enchants your mind, but they prove to be life degrading. They do not lead you anywhere. They keep you in the illusion that they are the best things in your life. But, no progress at all; rather make your life nothing but hell in later time. 

Our dharma firmly says to follow Shreya Marg. On this way of life, you have to restrict your distracted mind. You make those things part of your life which seem to be bitter at first, but they prove to be life upgrading factors in the coming years of your life. They ensure happy and healthy future. And, You lead a quality life in the years to come. You come out to have a brilliant and confident personality.

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Super idioms

 What's an idiom?

     An idiom is a set phrase that is always a group of words. Its meaning is different from the meanings of the individual words present in it, i.e. the meaning of an idiom does not come directly from the words you see. It has some hidden layer of meaning that is very interesting to figure out.

 The right use of idioms at right places just amuses the readers or the listeners. It can hold the attention of the audience but be careful not to overuse idioms. Idioms have some origins. Idioms are set phrases in which words are in a fixed order. So, one can't change the order of words in an idiom.

You can't make an idiom of yours just in a moment. It takes time. A phrase created by you, that has a hidden layer of meaning, can become an idiom only when it begins to be used by a large number of people in an English speaking community. 

The use of idioms in your language makes you sound quite natural, interesting and impressive. Using idioms can even increase your confidence level.

So, what's the wait for? Let's come and learn idioms together. We'll take one idiom at a time and try to understand the same in the right contexts with multiple examples. Today's first idiom is 'Learn by heart'. 

When you learn a poem or something by heart, you memorize the same and you can now recite it without looking at the book or notebook. You have the words in your memory clearly. Here goes a few examples------

1.  I have learnt my lines by heart. (Now, I can say the dialogues with confidence.)

2.  She has to learn 20 words by heart.

3.  He has learnt the mobile numbers of all his relatives by heart.

4.  My maths teacher knew all the questions by heart.

5.  Ravi knows all the formulae by heart.

6.  I have learnt these English songs by heart.

7.  They can select you only when you can say your lines by heart.

That's all in this blog. In the next blog, we'll deal with another idiom. Do check out the next blog.

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It's far more honorable to fail than to cheat.

        Oh! What a great line! The time I came across this beautiful line and understood its meaning, I've made it the principle of my life. I've even explained the meaning of this line to my students. And, many of them got influenced and started abiding by this way of thinking. They have taken a pledge not to use unfair means in the exams ever in their life. This line shakes your heart and just wakes you up. You feel a kind of challenge. You feel a kind of force from within to make it the principle of leading your life.

       This line has been taken from a well-known poem, 'Abraham Lincoln's letter to his son's teacher'.  Abraham Lincoln was one of the most popular presidents of the USA.

        A number of beautiful things have been conveyed to teachers in this poem. We'll deal with the whole poem in some other blog. Here, I'd like to stick to the one sentence that's my favorite. 

         It's exam time these days. Students are not happy with the exams being taken as they have not studied properly due to the lingering lock-down period caused by the COVID -19. Their syllabus has not been completed. Even if the online teaching was facilitated, most of the students didn't get benefited from that. Having said that, students got full time for self-studies. And, schools have been instructed to promote students in next classes. Whatever the situation may be, malpractices must not be practiced in exams. Using unfair means in the exams is in no way in favor of students. It seems to students they can get good marks. But that's only on the surface. As a matter of fact, losses that they are not able to see are much higher. 

          The students who use unfair means in exams can never rise in their own eyes. They will have low self-esteem. They will suffer from lack of confidence. On the other hand, the one who follow the principle, 'It's far more honorable to fail than to cheat.' will have high self-esteem. They get elevated in their own eyes. Because of having self-respect, they can make eye-contacts while talking to others. 

          Moreover, leading life by a principle like this instills a feeling of greatness in your heart. Mere instructions can't do the work. Students need to be prepared by using such elevating principles. The principle we are discussing are equally applicable in other walks of life apart from exams.

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I have come here at my granny's place. There is a large playground nearby. In the morning, I went jogging in the ground for the first time as I was new there.. There, I saw a gathering of youths of around my age. First, I completed two rounds of the ground. It appeared that some competitions were going to be held there. Since I was curious, I ask one of them what was to happen there. I got to know that races, long jump and high jumps were going to be organised. Winners would be awarded as well. Names of willing participants were being registered. I also got my name noted down for 100 metres' race. Registration fee was Rs. 15/- only. Why am I telling you this? The reason is it's a little bit interesting. I don't have a well-built personality that a common youth should have. I have never thought of winning a race. No one can even think of me doing anything in sports. Such has been my upbringing in which sports were considered to be the reason of spoiled life. But, only I know what harm I have had to go through because of not having involved in sports during my childhood. My belief is sports are as important as education. Sports play a greater role in molding someone's personality and ensuring one's over-all development. 

     What I want to say is I participated in the race despite various excuses.

Because, I don't want to be counted in the list of those who accept defeat even before taking part in the game. Even after I got my name enrolled for the race, my mind was trying to distract me, saying that I couldn't win. I objected my mind by saying, 'I will definitely run the race. I don't care of winning of losing.' Exactly, this is what is a must. What do you think?

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