FREEDOM

-Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore, (born May 7, 1861, Calcutta [now Kolkata], India—

died August 7, 1941, Calcutta), Bengali poet, short-story
writer, song composer, playwright, essayist, and painter who introduced
new prose and verse forms and the use of colloquial language into Bengali
literature, thereby freeing it from traditional models based on
classical Sanskrit. He is generally regarded as the outstanding creative
artist of early 20th-century India. In 1913 he became the first non-
European to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Theme of the poem

1. Sense of nation:

– Inaction arises from fear: people afraid of rebellion

– People lie in passive subjugation – no resistance against British

– Clouded judgment and insecurity – caused by fear

– Destiny that will bring it to ruin

2. National identity:

– Poet’s individual identity fused with that of the community’s greater

identity

– Desperation to bring forth change: cannot stand and watch injustices

– Nation annexed to another nation: sovereignty clashes

In the poem “Freedom” Rabindranath Tagore an acclaimed Indian writer and the
winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 expresses his wishes and vision
for his motherland, India. He supported Indian independence from Britain and
desired the end of the British Raj, which is the subject of "Freedom."

The first wish he has for India is the wish of freedom from fear. He believes fear
of his countrymen is responsible for her plight of slavery. In the first two lines of
the poem, he refers to India as the "motherland" and states that he wants India to
be free from fear. His use of alliteration, or repetition of the "f" sound in the words
"freedom," "from," "fear," and "freedom" again in the first line, emphasizes the
urgency of his call for Indian independence. The word "freedom" is repeated
throughout the poem to express the poet's deep wish for his country to be
independent.

The second wish he has for his motherland is the freedom from the burden of
sense-less, illogical, and orthodox beliefs and traditions which don’t let her see
the future. In the third line, he builds on the image of India as an aging mother,
and he wants her to be free from the "burden of the ages," which refers to the
yoke of English control of India. The aged woman who represents India bends
her head, bends her back, and blinds her eyes under the burden of colonialism.
These lines also use alliteration with the repetition of the "b" sound. Tagore
speaks of the way in which India does not see the future or imagine a brighter
future for herself by blinding her eyes. Instead of looking forward, India sleeps
with what Tagore calls "shackles of slumber," or time spent not thinking of her
future. Instead, India is fastening herself "in night's stillness," meaning that the
country is committed to the past and to the current situation of colonialism. The
country "mistrusts the star that speaks of truth's adventurous paths," meaning that
the country does not look around in its dark time (represented by night) and
imagine a brighter future for itself as independent.

His third wish for India is to break free of her fear of taking risks; he wants her
motherland to dare to walk on the adventurous path; he also wants her not to trust
so much in the uncertain destiny; nor allow the control of her forward movement
in the hands of narrow-minded and heartless people.

His last wish for her motherland is the freedom from humiliation of living as slave
in the hands of foreign invaders. When Tagore asks for "freedom from the
anarchy of destiny," he means that he doesn't want his country to just blindly and
passively follow the fate that has been given to it, and he compares this fate, or
destiny, to a sailboat that has to follow winds that are blowing in every direction
and that is captained by an uncaring hand. This is a metaphor in which his country
is compared to a sailboat following uncertain winds with an uncaring person at
the helm.

He wants her to stop living like a puppet whose each and every movement is
governed and controlled by the master of the show. He wishes for her motherland
to live freely, taking her own decisions and creating her own future. Then, Tagore
asks for freedom from India living in a "puppet's world," by which he means a
world in which India is controlled by other countries and forces as a puppet is
controlled by a puppeteer. The movements are orchestrated through "brainless
wires," meaning that England controls India without thinking and by following
"mindless habits," meaning customs that are followed without reason. In this
extended metaphor comparing India to a puppet show, figures, who are clearly
Indians, wait obediently just to follow the master of the show, meaning their
English rulers. Therefore, the Indians live "a mimicry of life," meaning an
inauthentic life controlled by others.

A CUT ABOVE
 - Meena Bindra

Indian ethnic apparels maker Meena Bindra was born in Delhi with a family of
six siblings. Despite being a late bloomer and with several factors working against
her, Bindra took the plunge and kept up a steady pace, giving wings to her
business stitch by stitch, client by client, and brick by brick. Meena’s father was
a business man and passed away when she was only nine years old However, he
left behind a lot of property which provided her mother a lot of aid to give them
a normal childhood. She was married at the age of nineteen years old when she
completed her BA. As she was married to naval officer she moved all over the
country with her husband and was busy looking after her home and family for the
first twenty years. She didn’t quite know how to sew a button on fabric until she
was 38. Yet, what she lacked in training and experience she made up through
her self-learned couture sensibilities, all of which prompted her to start a business
from home in 1985.

Bindra started out without any grand plan or support except the ambition to
remain independent in life, although things kept falling in place for her and she
gladly accepted what came her way. She borrowed a loan of eight thousand rupees
and started her business and through trial and error, Meena put together 40 salwar
suits and the first sale resulted in a small profit of 3000. At the Bindra residence,
she managed all the affairs of the house, both before and after her foray into the
business arena. By the end of the year Meena had three tailors doing jobwork and
started getting enquiries from retailers like Benzer and Sheetal . Since the supplies
became more she decided on a name for the bill book called “BIBA”. After three
years into business Meena moved into a 1000sq. ft office at Kemp’s corner.
Around this time Meena’s elder son, Sanjay, completed his BCom and joined the
business. He took over the boring side of the business handling the labour, taking
orders, keeping accounts. For the next few years BIBA grew into a steady pace
and gave rise to more outlets al over India. By 1993, BIBA had become one of
India’s largest ethnic-wear wholesalers, selling 1000-2000 pieces every month.
The annual turn at that time over was around two crores. Meanwhile by mid 90’s
the advent of India’s first multi-city department store shoppers stop approached
BIBA for the ladies ethnic wear and so in the process Meena was forced to
become more professional to stand by the commitments and deliver on time.
Advance planning, control systems and quality checks helped tailors become
more efficient and there was a measure of accountability. According to Meena
working with limitations and yet going beyond limits is the true test of any
entrepreneur and so by the year 2000 production of BIBA had scaled up to 5000
pieces per month and was able to manage cash flows without ban limits or
overdrafts.
The turning point for BIBA came when her younger son Sanjay joined the
company. BIBA opened its first company owned in 2004 at In Orbit and CR2
malls in Mumbai that resulted in the annual income of 12-15 lakh per month, the
whole company was restructured and in 2006 Kishore Biyani bought a 10% stake
in BIBA for 110 crores. In March 2012, BIBA’S annual revenues stood at 300
crores with 90 company-owned outlets contributing 50% of sales. The company
continued to outsource manufacturing, but employs around 1000 people in
supervisory roles and or retail sales. With her sons Meena had a clear demarcation
of boundaries. Yet there was argument and friction. There were differences on
how to take the business forward and so they decided to work separately. In 2010
Sanjay sold his stake and started a new ethnic-wear label called ‘Seven East’.
Meena believes that energy is the force which moves mountains and working
mothers and woman can be a wife, a mother and an entrepreneur and so she
advises to live a dream and have it all. Today, at 71 years of age, Bindra is more
satisfied with life than she has ever been. Yet, she is brimming with the same
level of enthusiasm as when she started out 30 years ago. She has worn many hats
in her life so far. In a span of three decades, she went from being a housewife and
mother to selling Indian salwar-suits from home, from becoming a supplier to
retailers to setting up her own ethnic apparel retail chain brand BIBA, which is
now a household name.

Charles Chaplin

(An excerpt from My Autobiography)

Charlie Chaplin, byname of Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin, (born April 16,
1889, London, England—died December 25, 1977), A British comedian,
producer, writer, director, and composer who is widely regarded as the greatest
comic artist of the screen and one of the most important figures in motion-picture
history. He became renowned through his films like The Gold Rush, The
Circus, The Little Tramp, and after his first 11 movies, Chaplin began to
manifest a desire to direct. By his 13th film, he had shifted into the director's
chair, and also emerged as a writer. Chaplin's 35 movies at Keystone
established him as a major film comedian and afforded him the chance to adapt
his stage routines to the screen. In his career of 75 years he saw both adulation
and controversy.

In his autobiography, Chaplin is most forthcoming when documenting his

heartbreaking childhood and gruelling adolescence in turn-of-the
century London; here lie the kind of brutal memories that may have stayed
carefully guarded, if not outright repressed secrets for others. Chaplin’s London
boyhood in Victorian England is being appropriately Dickensian: an alcoholic
father, an unstable but loving mother, half brothers, poverty, public institutions,
and, despite the privations, a will to excel. Chaplin brings out the most captivating
account of his childhood spent with his mother Hannah Chaplin and half-brother
Sydney Chaplin. Chaplin was born on 16th April 1889 in the East Lane, Walworth
and the circumstances then were moderately comfortable. Chaplin recollects the
memories of his mother who went to theatre every night and played a soubrette
in variety stage, she is described as a mignonne in her late twenties, with fair
complexion, violet-blue eyes and long light-brown hair that she could sit upon.
She took pride in dressing up the brothers for Sunday excursions and every night
after she came from the theatre it was her custom to leave delicacies on table with
the understanding that they were not to make a noise in the morning as she as
usually slept late. Chaplin also gives a descriptive image of London where he
spent the initial years of his childhood, his moods and awakenings. He says that
the London was sedate in those, the horse drawn tram-cars, along the Westminster
Bridge road went at a sedate pace. He describes the atmosphere surrounding the
Westminster Bridge road which was gay and friendly with attractive shops,
restaurants and music halls and the fruit shops that was a galaxy of colour with
different kinds of fruits. Chaplin also remembers of riding with his mother on top
of the horse-bus trying to touch passing lilac trees of many coloured bus tickets
that partly covered the footpath where the trams and buses stopped. His senses
was often affected from the objects that were placed in the sitting room like the
Mother’s life-size painting of Nell Gwyn, the small round music box and the
sixpenny toy chair that takes a special mention as it gave him an inordinate sense
of possession.

Chaplin recollects an instance of one afternoon where in, his mother was out with
a lady friend returning home in a state of excitement and was sobbing with a
mention of man’s name called Armstrong which led the kid Chaplin cry so much
But a few years later Chaplin realised the importance of it by learning that his
mother had returned from the law courts where she had been suing his father for
the non-support of her children and the case had not one too well for her. Chaplin
was told that Armstrong was his father’s lawyer.

It is at this scenario that Chaplin introduces his father to the readers who never
lived with them. He was a vaudevillian, who was quite brooding man with dark
eyes and considered a fine artist, his earnings were never for the family rather
his addiction to drinking which was also a cause of their separation. He died of
alcoholic excess at the age of thirty-seven. Chaplin talks about his mothers
struggle and conflicts that she underwent throughout her life, which reflected in
her eloping with middle aged African lord at eighteen and had a child who was
his half brother Sydney. Nevertheless she separated herself from that man,
returned to England and married his father. Chaplin points out that only when the
ill fortune befell her, she did seek relief and took legal steps against his father. It
is at this point of tie that Chaplin’s mother started having trouble with her voice
that made her theatrical engagements fall off until they were practically nil. It
impaired her health and made her a nervous wreck. This in turn led Chaplin to
make his first appearance on stage at the age of five as his mothers voice cracked
and went into whisper on stage. This becomes the last performance of his mother
as she never regained her voice. The circumstances turned from bad to worse, the
savings, jewellery, and all small possessions vanished in no time. Meanwhile they
moved from three comfortable rooms into two and then to one growing
progressively poor living in one dark room in the basement of Oakley street.

Chaplin introduces the readers to the utter poverty that the family suffered and
the socio-economical crisis that created a lot impact on his childhood. As they
started living in the lower strata and that his mother would grow moody when
asked about theatre, but she started doing needlework for the living and would
console the boys whenever they felt sad. Situations turned worse when the winter
was approaching and there were no clothes that would protect the boys, but
Chaplin’s mother made a coat for Sydney from her old velvet jacket which led to
the humiliation in school. The boys called him “Joseph and his coat of many
colours, and Chaplin as ‘Sir Francis Drake’ for wearing his mother’s red tights
cut down as a pair of stockings.

During this period situations turn out to be unbearable as Chapin’s mother

develops migraine headaches and she was told to give up on needle work and was
obliged to lie down in a dark room with tea-leaf bandages on her eyes. All these
instances made them survive on the charity based soup tickets and relief parcels
and Sydney selling newspapers between the school hours Nevertheless the crisis
comes to an end with Sydney accidentally finds a purse on the empty seat in the
bus. The purse was full of silver and copper coins and its inner pocket also had
some gold coins due to which Chaplin’s mother recovered within a week. In the
end Chaplin mentions about the hard times that pursued the family again and the
problems that mounted in the form of instalments and much more. The abrupt end
of his father’s aid, all these factors led his mother to approach the Lambeth
workhouse, a home or homeless, as she was burdened with two children and poor
health.

ENDYMION

-John Keats
The first book of “Endymion” by John Keats consists of three stanzas which can
be split into smaller sections for a simpler analysis. The poem is constructed with
a consistent and ever-present rhyme scheme of aabbccddee… etc. This rhyme
scheme was chosen by Keats in order to sustain a sense of forward momentum in
the poem. The pattern carries the reader from one line to the next as they become
accustomed to what will come next.
“Endymion” is named for the Aeolian shepherd and king of Elis in Greek
mythology. He was said to rule at Olympia and is best known for the love he
bares Selene, the moon. This had led to many, including Pliny the Elder, to cast
Endymion as an astronomer or at least as one who is quite familiar with celestial
movements.
In the mythological account of the life of Endymion, he asks for, and is given
eternal life. This blessing, and curse, is only possible if he remains in a perpetual
sleep. In this state his lover, Selene, the Titan goddess of the moon, is able to visit
him forever. Together they bare 50 daughters.

The first book of “Endymion” by John Keats details the speaker’s beliefs
regarding the power of beauty and his intentions to tell the story of Endymion.
The poem begins with the speaker describing at length the power he believes that
beauty holds over human life. He sees it as being a guiding force that, when
accepted and appreciated, enters into one’s heart and helps to clear one’s path
through life. Once one fully knows beauty, it will never leave. It transforms the
onlooker into the beautiful object.

Lines 1-9

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:

Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing
A flowery band to bind us to the earth,
Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth
Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,

In the first stanza of this piece the speaker is introducing the aspects of life and
beauty that he is going to be discussing in depth in the following stanzas and
books. One must keep in mind the story of Endymion, and the immortal sleep into
which he embarks. The first line of this piece is quite well-known and begins, “A
thing of beauty is a joy for ever.” This is clearly related to Endymion’s beautiful
immortality, but it has been taken down to a more human level. The speaker
believes that if something is beautiful, it gives off a “joy” that will exist
throughout time. There is no end to the “increase” of “loveliness” that will arise
alongside the beauty.
The sheer fact of the thing’s beauty will keep it from slipping into “nothingness.”
Beauty provides it with immortality but it does not alienate it from the human
world. It will still be there for those who need it, “keep[ing] / A bower quiet” and
ready. This place of rest will provide one with sweet dreams as well as health. It
is rejuvenating.
The final lines of this section speak on how the beauty will take one into the
“morrow” and when one awakens they will have made, through their sleep
alongside beauty, a “band to bind us to the earth.” The more time one spends with
beautiful things, the closer one becomes to the earth. There is nothing that can
stop this from happening, no “despondence” or absence of “noble natures.” All
of humankind has access to beauty.
Lines 10-19

Of all the unhealthy and o’er-darkened ways

Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all,
Some shape of beauty moves away the pall
From our dark spirits. Such the sun, the moon,
Trees old and young, sprouting a shady boon
For simple sheep; and such are daffodils
With the green world they live in; and clear rills
That for themselves a cooling covert make
‘Gainst the hot season; the mid forest brake,
Rich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose blooms:

Amongst the darkest days of life beauty will be there to lift away “unhealthy”
thoughts. It will be like a guide through one’s life that provides a way out of “dark
spirits” and shows on a brighter path as if guided by the sun.
Along the path that beauty makes there are, “Trees old and young” that create
“shady” spots for “sheep…and…daffodils” to live. The world is made lovely,
liveable, and worthwhile because of the beauty that inhabits it. The plants that
thrive on beauty are able to create “for themselves” a “cooling covert” that
protects them from the “hot season.”

Lines 20-24

And such too is the grandeur of the dooms

We have imagined for the mighty dead;
All lovely tales that we have heard or read:
An endless fountain of immortal drink,
Pouring unto us from the heaven’s brink.
The powerful world that the speaker just described is now juxtaposed with the
world that “We have imagined for the mighty dead.” The world of the living is
just as impressive as that of the dead. They are similar in their elaborate
complications and grand landscapes.
The speaker continues on the describe the way that beauty is able to move through
life. One such way is through the “tales that we have heard or read.” These stories
are passed from person to person and their “lov[liness]” is maintained.

Analysis

The poet used the first stanza to introduce himself and his idea of nature’s beauty
and the role it played in his private life. He acknowledged that nature’s beauty
uplifts the human spirit and helps us to face our challenges. The stanza also
defined the writer’s inspiration to rewrite the Greek story of Endymion.

He affirmed that, despite our troubles, nature’s beauty always seems to intervene
and restore our joy, hopes and dreams.

Some shape of beauty moves away the pall

From our dark spirits.

He then equated the earth’s beauty to good sleep and perfect health.

A bower quiet for us, and a sleep

full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.

In the first stanza, the poet also traces the origins of the story on which the
poem Endymion is based.
All lovely tales that we have heard or read:
An endless fountain of immortal drink,
Pouring unto us from the heaven's brink.

The writer also showed that he treasured his life and hoped that he lived long
enough to complete his work.

Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing

A flowery band to bind us to the earth,

He explained his will to continue living and enjoying the earth’s beauty despite
the depressing days that he encountered

Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth

Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,

In summary, the first stanza serves as an introduction about the writer, his
inspiration for the poem and his personal description of earth's beauty which
would later relate to the story of Endymion.

Reorienting the text of the poem

Endymion, one of John Keats’smost substantial poetic works, advanced his goal
of creating a fully developed Romantic poetry that brought classical themes into
his own times. In four books, each about 1,000 lines long, he combines
description, narrative, classical allusion, and emotional-intellectual analysis into
the story of one man’s quest and self-discovery. The luscious language, while it
demonstrates Keats’s mastery, is also well-suited to the themes. The story is
framed by the real environment of a terrestrial location, but at the end Endymion’s
fulfillment it removes him from this realm. In between, he must conquer many
obstacles in mysterious subterranean and subaquatic environments. Endymion, a
shepherd high in the Greek mountains, is a dreamy, melancholic sort of man. A
simple existence tending sheep is not very fulfilling and, after he sees an ideal
woman in a vision, his life is transformed. Nothing will satisfy him but to pursue
this illusory woman, whom he believes is his spiritual mate. This desire takes him
away from home, forcing him to take bold, decisive actions.