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When I was growing up, my father said something to me I will never forget, "Son when you were born, you cried while the world rejoiced. Live your life in such a way that when you die the world cries while you rejoice". We live in an age when we have forgotten what life is all about. We can easily put a person on the Moon, but we have trouble walking across the street to meet a new neighbour. We can fire a missile across the world with pinpoint accuracy, but we have trouble keeping a date with our children to go to the library. We have e-mail, fax machines and digital phones so that we can stay connected and yet we live in a time where human beings have never been less connected. We have lost touch with our humanity. We have lost touch with our purpose. We have lost sight of the things that matter the most.

When I was growing up, my father said something to me I will never forget, "Son when you were born, you cried while the world rejoiced. Live your life in such a way that when you die the world cries while you rejoice". We live in an age when we have forgotten what life is all about. We can easily put a person on the Moon, but we have trouble walking across the street to meet a new neighbour. We can fire a missile across the world with pinpoint accuracy, but we have trouble keeping a date with our children to go to the library. We have e-mail, fax machines and digital phones so that we can stay connected and yet we live in a time where human beings have never been less connected. We have lost touch with our humanity. We have lost touch with our purpose. We have lost sight of the things that matter the most.

When I was growing up, my father said something to me I will never forget, "Son when you were born, you cried while the world rejoiced. Live your life in such a way that when you die the world cries while you rejoice". We live in an age when we have forgotten what life is all about. We can easily put a person on the Moon, but we have trouble walking across the street to meet a new neighbour. We can fire a missile across the world with pinpoint accuracy, but we have trouble keeping a date with our children to go to the library. We have e-mail, fax machines and digital phones so that we can stay connected and yet we live in a time where human beings have never been less connected. We have lost touch with our humanity. We have lost touch with our purpose. We have lost sight of the things that matter the most.

He sounded the clacker till his arm ached, and at length his heart grew sympathetic with the birds' thwarted desires. They seemed, like himself, to be living in a world which did not want them. Why should he frighten them away? They took upon more and more the aspect of gentle friends and pensioners - the only friends he could claim as being in the least degree interested in him, for his aunt had often told him that she was not. He ceased his rattling, and they alighted anew.

"Poor little dears!" said Jude, aloud. "You shall have some dinner--you shall. There is enough for us all. Farmer Troutham can afford to let you have some. Eat, then my dear little birdies, and make a good meal!"

They stayed and ate, inky spots on the nut-brown soil, and Jude enjoyed their appetite. A magic thread of fellow-feeling united his own life with theirs. Puny and sorry as those lives were, they much resembled his own.

His clacker he had by this time thrown away from him, as being a mean and sordid instrument, offensive both to the birds and to himself as their friend. All at once he became conscious of a smart blow upon his buttocks, followed by a loud clack, which announced to his surprised senses that the clacker had been the instrument of offence used. The birds and Jude started up simultaneously, and the dazed eyes of the latter beheld the farmer in person, the great Troutham himself, his red face glaring down upon Jude's cowering frame, the clacker swinging in his hand.

He sounded the clacker till his arm ached, and at length his heart grew sympathetic with the birds' thwarted desires. They seemed, like himself, to be living in a world which did not want them. Why should he frighten them away? They took upon more and more the aspect of gentle friends and pensioners - the only friends he could claim as being in the least degree interested in him, for his aunt had often told him that she was not. He ceased his rattling, and they alighted anew.

"Poor little dears!" said Jude, aloud. "You shall have some dinner--you shall. There is enough for us all. Farmer Troutham can afford to let you have some. Eat, then my dear little birdies, and make a good meal!"

They stayed and ate, inky spots on the nut-brown soil, and Jude enjoyed their appetite. A magic thread of fellow-feeling united his own life with theirs. Puny and sorry as those lives were, they much resembled his own.

His clacker he had by this time thrown away from him, as being a mean and sordid instrument, offensive both to the birds and to himself as their friend. All at once he became conscious of a smart blow upon his buttocks, followed by a loud clack, which announced to his surprised senses that the clacker had been the instrument of offence used. The birds and Jude started up simultaneously, and the dazed eyes of the latter beheld the farmer in person, the great Troutham himself, his red face glaring down upon Jude's cowering frame, the clacker swinging in his hand.

He sounded the clacker till his arm ached, and at length his heart grew sympathetic with the birds' thwarted desires. They seemed, like himself, to be living in a world which did not want them. Why should he frighten them away? They took upon more and more the aspect of gentle friends and pensioners - the only friends he could claim as being in the least degree interested in him, for his aunt had often told him that she was not. He ceased his rattling, and they alighted anew.

"Poor little dears!" said Jude, aloud. "You shall have some dinner--you shall. There is enough for us all. Farmer Troutham can afford to let you have some. Eat, then my dear little birdies, and make a good meal!"

They stayed and ate, inky spots on the nut-brown soil, and Jude enjoyed their appetite. A magic thread of fellow-feeling united his own life with theirs. Puny and sorry as those lives were, they much resembled his own.

His clacker he had by this time thrown away from him, as being a mean and sordid instrument, offensive both to the birds and to himself as their friend. All at once he became conscious of a smart blow upon his buttocks, followed by a loud clack, which announced to his surprised senses that the clacker had been the instrument of offence used. The birds and Jude started up simultaneously, and the dazed eyes of the latter beheld the farmer in person, the great Troutham himself, his red face glaring down upon Jude's cowering frame, the clacker swinging in his hand.

He sounded the clacker till his arm ached, and at length his heart grew sympathetic with the birds' thwarted desires. They seemed, like himself, to be living in a world which did not want them. Why should he frighten them away? They took upon more and more the aspect of gentle friends and pensioners - the only friends he could claim as being in the least degree interested in him, for his aunt had often told him that she was not. He ceased his rattling, and they alighted anew.

"Poor little dears!" said Jude, aloud. "You shall have some dinner--you shall. There is enough for us all. Farmer Troutham can afford to let you have some. Eat, then my dear little birdies, and make a good meal!"

They stayed and ate, inky spots on the nut-brown soil, and Jude enjoyed their appetite. A magic thread of fellow-feeling united his own life with theirs. Puny and sorry as those lives were, they much resembled his own.

His clacker he had by this time thrown away from him, as being a mean and sordid instrument, offensive both to the birds and to himself as their friend. All at once he became conscious of a smart blow upon his buttocks, followed by a loud clack, which announced to his surprised senses that the clacker had been the instrument of offence used. The birds and Jude started up simultaneously, and the dazed eyes of the latter beheld the farmer in person, the great Troutham himself, his red face glaring down upon Jude's cowering frame, the clacker swinging in his hand.

He sounded the clacker till his arm ached, and at length his heart grew sympathetic with the birds' thwarted desires. They seemed, like himself, to be living in a world which did not want them. Why should he frighten them away? They took upon more and more the aspect of gentle friends and pensioners - the only friends he could claim as being in the least degree interested in him, for his aunt had often told him that she was not. He ceased his rattling, and they alighted anew.

"Poor little dears!" said Jude, aloud. "You shall have some dinner--you shall. There is enough for us all. Farmer Troutham can afford to let you have some. Eat, then my dear little birdies, and make a good meal!"

They stayed and ate, inky spots on the nut-brown soil, and Jude enjoyed their appetite. A magic thread of fellow-feeling united his own life with theirs. Puny and sorry as those lives were, they much resembled his own.

His clacker he had by this time thrown away from him, as being a mean and sordid instrument, offensive both to the birds and to himself as their friend. All at once he became conscious of a smart blow upon his buttocks, followed by a loud clack, which announced to his surprised senses that the clacker had been the instrument of offence used. The birds and Jude started up simultaneously, and the dazed eyes of the latter beheld the farmer in person, the great Troutham himself, his red face glaring down upon Jude's cowering frame, the clacker swinging in his hand.

He sounded the clacker till his arm ached, and at length his heart grew sympathetic with the birds' thwarted desires. They seemed, like himself, to be living in a world which did not want them. Why should he frighten them away? They took upon more and more the aspect of gentle friends and pensioners - the only friends he could claim as being in the least degree interested in him, for his aunt had often told him that she was not. He ceased his rattling, and they alighted anew.

"Poor little dears!" said Jude, aloud. "You shall have some dinner--you shall. There is enough for us all. Farmer Troutham can afford to let you have some. Eat, then my dear little birdies, and make a good meal!"

They stayed and ate, inky spots on the nut-brown soil, and Jude enjoyed their appetite. A magic thread of fellow-feeling united his own life with theirs. Puny and sorry as those lives were, they much resembled his own.

His clacker he had by this time thrown away from him, as being a mean and sordid instrument, offensive both to the birds and to himself as their friend. All at once he became conscious of a smart blow upon his buttocks, followed by a loud clack, which announced to his surprised senses that the clacker had been the instrument of offence used. The birds and Jude started up simultaneously, and the dazed eyes of the latter beheld the farmer in person, the great Troutham himself, his red face glaring down upon Jude's cowering frame, the clacker swinging in his hand.

Dr. Kalam, the 'Missile Man' was the twelfth President of India. He was the third Muslim President after Dr. Zakir Hussain and Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed. He was born at Dhanushkodi, Rameswaram (Tamil Nadu) on Oct. 15, 1931. He did his B.Sc. from St. Joseph's College, Turuchirappalli to become the first graduate in his family. His mother had to mortgage her gold bangles and necklaces to get the admission to the prestigious Madras Institute of Technology where he studied Aeronautical Engineering. Thereafter, Dr. Kalam never looked back.

Dr. Kalam was a staunch nationalist and secular to the core. He could quote words or sentences with equal ease both from the Holy Koran and the Bhagwat Geeta. He was a fan of great Tamil poet and philosopher Subramaniam Bharti. As a boy, he was captivated and charmed by high skies. He had a scientific temper blended with spirituality. Endowed with a scientific temper, he believed in astronomy and not astrology. Despite his tremendous achievements, Dr. Kalam continued to dream about various other achievements.

Under his stewardship, the country's missile development programme took rapid strides culminating in the successful launching of the Trishul, Prithvi, Agni I and II, Nag and Akash. In recognition of his talent he was conferred with country's top civilian honours - Padma Bhushan in 1981, Padma Vibhushan in 1990 and Bharat Ratna in 1997.

He was a great son of India. He always used to say, " I want to ignite young minds, which are a powerful resource." His mission was to teach 1,00,000 students. Being the President of India, his main focus was to ignite the minds of people.

Dr. Kalam, the 'Missile Man' was the twelfth President of India. He was the third Muslim President after Dr. Zakir Hussain and Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed. He was born at Dhanushkodi, Rameswaram (Tamil Nadu) on Oct. 15, 1931. He did his B.Sc. from St. Joseph's College, Turuchirappalli to become the first graduate in his family. His mother had to mortgage her gold bangles and necklaces to get the admission to the prestigious Madras Institute of Technology where he studied Aeronautical Engineering. Thereafter, Dr. Kalam never looked back.

Dr. Kalam was a staunch nationalist and secular to the core. He could quote words or sentences with equal ease both from the Holy Koran and the Bhagwat Geeta. He was a fan of great Tamil poet and philosopher Subramaniam Bharti. As a boy, he was captivated and charmed by high skies. He had a scientific temper blended with spirituality. Endowed with a scientific temper, he believed in astronomy and not astrology. Despite his tremendous achievements, Dr. Kalam continued to dream about various other achievements.

Under his stewardship, the country's missile development programme took rapid strides culminating in the successful launching of the Trishul, Prithvi, Agni I and II, Nag and Akash. In recognition of his talent he was conferred with country's top civilian honours - Padma Bhushan in 1981, Padma Vibhushan in 1990 and Bharat Ratna in 1997.

He was a great son of India. He always used to say, " I want to ignite young minds, which are a powerful resource." His mission was to teach 1,00,000 students. Being the President of India, his main focus was to ignite the minds of people.

Dr. Kalam, the 'Missile Man' was the twelfth President of India. He was the third Muslim President after Dr. Zakir Hussain and Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed. He was born at Dhanushkodi, Rameswaram (Tamil Nadu) on Oct. 15, 1931. He did his B.Sc. from St. Joseph's College, Turuchirappalli to become the first graduate in his family. His mother had to mortgage her gold bangles and necklaces to get the admission to the prestigious Madras Institute of Technology where he studied Aeronautical Engineering. Thereafter, Dr. Kalam never looked back.

Dr. Kalam was a staunch nationalist and secular to the core. He could quote words or sentences with equal ease both from the Holy Koran and the Bhagwat Geeta. He was a fan of great Tamil poet and philosopher Subramaniam Bharti. As a boy, he was captivated and charmed by high skies. He had a scientific temper blended with spirituality. Endowed with a scientific temper, he believed in astronomy and not astrology. Despite his tremendous achievements, Dr. Kalam continued to dream about various other achievements.

Under his stewardship, the country's missile development programme took rapid strides culminating in the successful launching of the Trishul, Prithvi, Agni I and II, Nag and Akash. In recognition of his talent he was conferred with country's top civilian honours - Padma Bhushan in 1981, Padma Vibhushan in 1990 and Bharat Ratna in 1997.

He was a great son of India. He always used to say, " I want to ignite young minds, which are a powerful resource." His mission was to teach 1,00,000 students. Being the President of India, his main focus was to ignite the minds of people.

Dr. Kalam, the 'Missile Man' was the twelfth President of India. He was the third Muslim President after Dr. Zakir Hussain and Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed. He was born at Dhanushkodi, Rameswaram (Tamil Nadu) on Oct. 15, 1931. He did his B.Sc. from St. Joseph's College, Turuchirappalli to become the first graduate in his family. His mother had to mortgage her gold bangles and necklaces to get the admission to the prestigious Madras Institute of Technology where he studied Aeronautical Engineering. Thereafter, Dr. Kalam never looked back.

Dr. Kalam was a staunch nationalist and secular to the core. He could quote words or sentences with equal ease both from the Holy Koran and the Bhagwat Geeta. He was a fan of great Tamil poet and philosopher Subramaniam Bharti. As a boy, he was captivated and charmed by high skies. He had a scientific temper blended with spirituality. Endowed with a scientific temper, he believed in astronomy and not astrology. Despite his tremendous achievements, Dr. Kalam continued to dream about various other achievements.

Under his stewardship, the country's missile development programme took rapid strides culminating in the successful launching of the Trishul, Prithvi, Agni I and II, Nag and Akash. In recognition of his talent he was conferred with country's top civilian honours - Padma Bhushan in 1981, Padma Vibhushan in 1990 and Bharat Ratna in 1997.

He was a great son of India. He always used to say, " I want to ignite young minds, which are a powerful resource." His mission was to teach 1,00,000 students. Being the President of India, his main focus was to ignite the minds of people.

Dr. Kalam, the 'Missile Man' was the twelfth President of India. He was the third Muslim President after Dr. Zakir Hussain and Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed. He was born at Dhanushkodi, Rameswaram (Tamil Nadu) on Oct. 15, 1931. He did his B.Sc. from St. Joseph's College, Turuchirappalli to become the first graduate in his family. His mother had to mortgage her gold bangles and necklaces to get the admission to the prestigious Madras Institute of Technology where he studied Aeronautical Engineering. Thereafter, Dr. Kalam never looked back.

Dr. Kalam was a staunch nationalist and secular to the core. He could quote words or sentences with equal ease both from the Holy Koran and the Bhagwat Geeta. He was a fan of great Tamil poet and philosopher Subramaniam Bharti. As a boy, he was captivated and charmed by high skies. He had a scientific temper blended with spirituality. Endowed with a scientific temper, he believed in astronomy and not astrology. Despite his tremendous achievements, Dr. Kalam continued to dream about various other achievements.

Under his stewardship, the country's missile development programme took rapid strides culminating in the successful launching of the Trishul, Prithvi, Agni I and II, Nag and Akash. In recognition of his talent he was conferred with country's top civilian honours - Padma Bhushan in 1981, Padma Vibhushan in 1990 and Bharat Ratna in 1997.

He was a great son of India. He always used to say, " I want to ignite young minds, which are a powerful resource." His mission was to teach 1,00,000 students. Being the President of India, his main focus was to ignite the minds of people.

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given in the end:

SELECTED SNOBBERIES

All men are snobs about something. One is almost tempted to add: There is nothing about which men cannot feel snobbish. But this would doubtless be an exaggeration. There are certain disfiguring and moral diseases about which there has probably never been any snobbery. I cannot imagine, for example, that there are any leprosy-snobs. More picturesque diseases, even when they are dangerous, and less dangerous, diseases, particularly when they are the diseases of the rich, can be and very frequently are a source of snobbish self-importance. I have met several adolescent consumption-snobs, who thought that it would be romantic to fade away in the flower of youth, like Keats or Marie Bashkirtseff. Alas, the final stages of the consumptive fading are generally a good deal less romantic than these ingenuous young tubercle snobs seem to imagine. To anyone who has actually witnessed these final stages, the complacent poeticizing of those adolescents must seem as exasperating as they are profoundly pathetic. In the case of those commoner disease-snobs, their claim to distinction is not tempered by very much sympathy. People who possess sufficient leisure, sufficient wealth, not to mention sufficient health, to go travelling from spa to spa, from doctor to fashionable doctor, in search of cures from problematical diseases (which, in so far as they exist at all probably have their source in over-eating) cannot expect us to be very lavish in our solitude and pity.

• Aldous Huxley

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given in the end:

SELECTED SNOBBERIES

All men are snobs about something. One is almost tempted to add: There is nothing about which men cannot feel snobbish. But this would doubtless be an exaggeration. There are certain disfiguring and moral diseases about which there has probably never been any snobbery. I cannot imagine, for example, that there are any leprosy-snobs. More picturesque diseases, even when they are dangerous, and less dangerous, diseases, particularly when they are the diseases of the rich, can be and very frequently are a source of snobbish self-importance. I have met several adolescent consumption-snobs, who thought that it would be romantic to fade away in the flower of youth, like Keats or Marie Bashkirtseff. Alas, the final stages of the consumptive fading are generally a good deal less romantic than these ingenuous young tubercle snobs seem to imagine. To anyone who has actually witnessed these final stages, the complacent poeticizing of those adolescents must seem as exasperating as they are profoundly pathetic. In the case of those commoner disease-snobs, their claim to distinction is not tempered by very much sympathy. People who possess sufficient leisure, sufficient wealth, not to mention sufficient health, to go travelling from spa to spa, from doctor to fashionable doctor, in search of cures from problematical diseases (which, in so far as they exist at all probably have their source in over-eating) cannot expect us to be very lavish in our solitude and pity.

• Aldous Huxley

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given in the end:

SELECTED SNOBBERIES

All men are snobs about something. One is almost tempted to add: There is nothing about which men cannot feel snobbish. But this would doubtless be an exaggeration. There are certain disfiguring and moral diseases about which there has probably never been any snobbery. I cannot imagine, for example, that there are any leprosy-snobs. More picturesque diseases, even when they are dangerous, and less dangerous, diseases, particularly when they are the diseases of the rich, can be and very frequently are a source of snobbish self-importance. I have met several adolescent consumption-snobs, who thought that it would be romantic to fade away in the flower of youth, like Keats or Marie Bashkirtseff. Alas, the final stages of the consumptive fading are generally a good deal less romantic than these ingenuous young tubercle snobs seem to imagine. To anyone who has actually witnessed these final stages, the complacent poeticizing of those adolescents must seem as exasperating as they are profoundly pathetic. In the case of those commoner disease-snobs, their claim to distinction is not tempered by very much sympathy. People who possess sufficient leisure, sufficient wealth, not to mention sufficient health, to go travelling from spa to spa, from doctor to fashionable doctor, in search of cures from problematical diseases (which, in so far as they exist at all probably have their source in over-eating) cannot expect us to be very lavish in our solitude and pity.

• Aldous Huxley

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given in the end:

SELECTED SNOBBERIES

All men are snobs about something. One is almost tempted to add: There is nothing about which men cannot feel snobbish. But this would doubtless be an exaggeration. There are certain disfiguring and moral diseases about which there has probably never been any snobbery. I cannot imagine, for example, that there are any leprosy-snobs. More picturesque diseases, even when they are dangerous, and less dangerous, diseases, particularly when they are the diseases of the rich, can be and very frequently are a source of snobbish self-importance. I have met several adolescent consumption-snobs, who thought that it would be romantic to fade away in the flower of youth, like Keats or Marie Bashkirtseff. Alas, the final stages of the consumptive fading are generally a good deal less romantic than these ingenuous young tubercle snobs seem to imagine. To anyone who has actually witnessed these final stages, the complacent poeticizing of those adolescents must seem as exasperating as they are profoundly pathetic. In the case of those commoner disease-snobs, their claim to distinction is not tempered by very much sympathy. People who possess sufficient leisure, sufficient wealth, not to mention sufficient health, to go travelling from spa to spa, from doctor to fashionable doctor, in search of cures from problematical diseases (which, in so far as they exist at all probably have their source in over-eating) cannot expect us to be very lavish in our solitude and pity.

• Aldous Huxley

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given in the end:

SELECTED SNOBBERIES

All men are snobs about something. One is almost tempted to add: There is nothing about which men cannot feel snobbish. But this would doubtless be an exaggeration. There are certain disfiguring and moral diseases about which there has probably never been any snobbery. I cannot imagine, for example, that there are any leprosy-snobs. More picturesque diseases, even when they are dangerous, and less dangerous, diseases, particularly when they are the diseases of the rich, can be and very frequently are a source of snobbish self-importance. I have met several adolescent consumption-snobs, who thought that it would be romantic to fade away in the flower of youth, like Keats or Marie Bashkirtseff. Alas, the final stages of the consumptive fading are generally a good deal less romantic than these ingenuous young tubercle snobs seem to imagine. To anyone who has actually witnessed these final stages, the complacent poeticizing of those adolescents must seem as exasperating as they are profoundly pathetic. In the case of those commoner disease-snobs, their claim to distinction is not tempered by very much sympathy. People who possess sufficient leisure, sufficient wealth, not to mention sufficient health, to go travelling from spa to spa, from doctor to fashionable doctor, in search of cures from problematical diseases (which, in so far as they exist at all probably have their source in over-eating) cannot expect us to be very lavish in our solitude and pity.

• Aldous Huxley

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given in the end:

SELECTED SNOBBERIES

All men are snobs about something. One is almost tempted to add: There is nothing about which men cannot feel snobbish. But this would doubtless be an exaggeration. There are certain disfiguring and moral diseases about which there has probably never been any snobbery. I cannot imagine, for example, that there are any leprosy-snobs. More picturesque diseases, even when they are dangerous, and less dangerous, diseases, particularly when they are the diseases of the rich, can be and very frequently are a source of snobbish self-importance. I have met several adolescent consumption-snobs, who thought that it would be romantic to fade away in the flower of youth, like Keats or Marie Bashkirtseff. Alas, the final stages of the consumptive fading are generally a good deal less romantic than these ingenuous young tubercle snobs seem to imagine. To anyone who has actually witnessed these final stages, the complacent poeticizing of those adolescents must seem as exasperating as they are profoundly pathetic. In the case of those commoner disease-snobs, their claim to distinction is not tempered by very much sympathy. People who possess sufficient leisure, sufficient wealth, not to mention sufficient health, to go travelling from spa to spa, from doctor to fashionable doctor, in search of cures from problematical diseases (which, in so far as they exist at all probably have their source in over-eating) cannot expect us to be very lavish in our solitude and pity.

• Aldous Huxley

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given in the end:

I was born in Pandari, around 30 kilometers from Motihari in Bihar. My education started in my village madrasa and then in an Urdu-medium government school. I did not have any English then.

When I discovered, at age 20 or 21, that Eric Arthur Blair aka George Orwell was born in Motihari, it made me wonder if I could be a writer too. That day, it became my dream.

My Abba was the one who opened up the world of books for me. I must have been seven or eight, when he first gifted me a Hindi storybook. He was posted in a small town near Patna and visited our village home. Looking at the book, I asked Abba if it was for my next class. I did not know then that books existed beyond the classroom. When Abba explained, I was fascinated to hear about storybooks. I couldn't believe I would not have to pester my mother or grandmother for my daily dose of bedtime stories. That was the beginning of my love affair with books.

By the time I was in class 10, I had finished reading hundreds of novels-literary as well as pulp fiction. Some of my favourite writers were Ibn-e-Safi, Devaki Nandan Khatri, Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, Prem Chand, etc. Nanaji (my maternal grandfather), who ran a Unani and Ayurvedic medicine shop in a small kasba (town) called Bairangania, used to be the only person from the area who knew English. My father cited him to motivate me to improve my English. Also, my private tutor, Janak Babu, made me believe that it was possible for a Bhojpuri-speaking Hindi/Urdu-medium student like me to learn the language. After 10 months with Janaki Babu, I started reading comics in English. Two years later, in 1988, I read my first English novel, Khushwant Singh's Train to Pakistan. The first book I actually bought myself was A Strange and Sublime Address by Amit Chaudhuri for the princely sum of Rs. 30 from a roadside bookseller.

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given in the end:

I was born in Pandari, around 30 kilometers from Motihari in Bihar. My education started in my village madrasa and then in an Urdu-medium government school. I did not have any English then.

When I discovered, at age 20 or 21, that Eric Arthur Blair aka George Orwell was born in Motihari, it made me wonder if I could be a writer too. That day, it became my dream.

My Abba was the one who opened up the world of books for me. I must have been seven or eight, when he first gifted me a Hindi storybook. He was posted in a small town near Patna and visited our village home. Looking at the book, I asked Abba if it was for my next class. I did not know then that books existed beyond the classroom. When Abba explained, I was fascinated to hear about storybooks. I couldn't believe I would not have to pester my mother or grandmother for my daily dose of bedtime stories. That was the beginning of my love affair with books.

By the time I was in class 10, I had finished reading hundreds of novels-literary as well as pulp fiction. Some of my favourite writers were Ibn-e-Safi, Devaki Nandan Khatri, Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, Prem Chand, etc. Nanaji (my maternal grandfather), who ran a Unani and Ayurvedic medicine shop in a small kasba (town) called Bairangania, used to be the only person from the area who knew English. My father cited him to motivate me to improve my English. Also, my private tutor, Janak Babu, made me believe that it was possible for a Bhojpuri-speaking Hindi/Urdu-medium student like me to learn the language. After 10 months with Janaki Babu, I started reading comics in English. Two years later, in 1988, I read my first English novel, Khushwant Singh's Train to Pakistan. The first book I actually bought myself was A Strange and Sublime Address by Amit Chaudhuri for the princely sum of Rs. 30 from a roadside bookseller.

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given in the end:

I was born in Pandari, around 30 kilometers from Motihari in Bihar. My education started in my village madrasa and then in an Urdu-medium government school. I did not have any English then.

When I discovered, at age 20 or 21, that Eric Arthur Blair aka George Orwell was born in Motihari, it made me wonder if I could be a writer too. That day, it became my dream.

My Abba was the one who opened up the world of books for me. I must have been seven or eight, when he first gifted me a Hindi storybook. He was posted in a small town near Patna and visited our village home. Looking at the book, I asked Abba if it was for my next class. I did not know then that books existed beyond the classroom. When Abba explained, I was fascinated to hear about storybooks. I couldn't believe I would not have to pester my mother or grandmother for my daily dose of bedtime stories. That was the beginning of my love affair with books.

By the time I was in class 10, I had finished reading hundreds of novels-literary as well as pulp fiction. Some of my favourite writers were Ibn-e-Safi, Devaki Nandan Khatri, Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, Prem Chand, etc. Nanaji (my maternal grandfather), who ran a Unani and Ayurvedic medicine shop in a small kasba (town) called Bairangania, used to be the only person from the area who knew English. My father cited him to motivate me to improve my English. Also, my private tutor, Janak Babu, made me believe that it was possible for a Bhojpuri-speaking Hindi/Urdu-medium student like me to learn the language. After 10 months with Janaki Babu, I started reading comics in English. Two years later, in 1988, I read my first English novel, Khushwant Singh's Train to Pakistan. The first book I actually bought myself was A Strange and Sublime Address by Amit Chaudhuri for the princely sum of Rs. 30 from a roadside bookseller.

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given in the end:

I was born in Pandari, around 30 kilometers from Motihari in Bihar. My education started in my village madrasa and then in an Urdu-medium government school. I did not have any English then.

When I discovered, at age 20 or 21, that Eric Arthur Blair aka George Orwell was born in Motihari, it made me wonder if I could be a writer too. That day, it became my dream.

My Abba was the one who opened up the world of books for me. I must have been seven or eight, when he first gifted me a Hindi storybook. He was posted in a small town near Patna and visited our village home. Looking at the book, I asked Abba if it was for my next class. I did not know then that books existed beyond the classroom. When Abba explained, I was fascinated to hear about storybooks. I couldn't believe I would not have to pester my mother or grandmother for my daily dose of bedtime stories. That was the beginning of my love affair with books.

By the time I was in class 10, I had finished reading hundreds of novels-literary as well as pulp fiction. Some of my favourite writers were Ibn-e-Safi, Devaki Nandan Khatri, Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, Prem Chand, etc. Nanaji (my maternal grandfather), who ran a Unani and Ayurvedic medicine shop in a small kasba (town) called Bairangania, used to be the only person from the area who knew English. My father cited him to motivate me to improve my English. Also, my private tutor, Janak Babu, made me believe that it was possible for a Bhojpuri-speaking Hindi/Urdu-medium student like me to learn the language. After 10 months with Janaki Babu, I started reading comics in English. Two years later, in 1988, I read my first English novel, Khushwant Singh's Train to Pakistan. The first book I actually bought myself was A Strange and Sublime Address by Amit Chaudhuri for the princely sum of Rs. 30 from a roadside bookseller.

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given in the end:

I was born in Pandari, around 30 kilometers from Motihari in Bihar. My education started in my village madrasa and then in an Urdu-medium government school. I did not have any English then.

When I discovered, at age 20 or 21, that Eric Arthur Blair aka George Orwell was born in Motihari, it made me wonder if I could be a writer too. That day, it became my dream.

My Abba was the one who opened up the world of books for me. I must have been seven or eight, when he first gifted me a Hindi storybook. He was posted in a small town near Patna and visited our village home. Looking at the book, I asked Abba if it was for my next class. I did not know then that books existed beyond the classroom. When Abba explained, I was fascinated to hear about storybooks. I couldn't believe I would not have to pester my mother or grandmother for my daily dose of bedtime stories. That was the beginning of my love affair with books.

By the time I was in class 10, I had finished reading hundreds of novels-literary as well as pulp fiction. Some of my favourite writers were Ibn-e-Safi, Devaki Nandan Khatri, Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, Prem Chand, etc. Nanaji (my maternal grandfather), who ran a Unani and Ayurvedic medicine shop in a small kasba (town) called Bairangania, used to be the only person from the area who knew English. My father cited him to motivate me to improve my English. Also, my private tutor, Janak Babu, made me believe that it was possible for a Bhojpuri-speaking Hindi/Urdu-medium student like me to learn the language. After 10 months with Janaki Babu, I started reading comics in English. Two years later, in 1988, I read my first English novel, Khushwant Singh's Train to Pakistan. The first book I actually bought myself was A Strange and Sublime Address by Amit Chaudhuri for the princely sum of Rs. 30 from a roadside bookseller.

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given in the end:

I was born in Pandari, around 30 kilometers from Motihari in Bihar. My education started in my village madrasa and then in an Urdu-medium government school. I did not have any English then.

When I discovered, at age 20 or 21, that Eric Arthur Blair aka George Orwell was born in Motihari, it made me wonder if I could be a writer too. That day, it became my dream.

My Abba was the one who opened up the world of books for me. I must have been seven or eight, when he first gifted me a Hindi storybook. He was posted in a small town near Patna and visited our village home. Looking at the book, I asked Abba if it was for my next class. I did not know then that books existed beyond the classroom. When Abba explained, I was fascinated to hear about storybooks. I couldn't believe I would not have to pester my mother or grandmother for my daily dose of bedtime stories. That was the beginning of my love affair with books.

By the time I was in class 10, I had finished reading hundreds of novels-literary as well as pulp fiction. Some of my favourite writers were Ibn-e-Safi, Devaki Nandan Khatri, Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, Prem Chand, etc. Nanaji (my maternal grandfather), who ran a Unani and Ayurvedic medicine shop in a small kasba (town) called Bairangania, used to be the only person from the area who knew English. My father cited him to motivate me to improve my English. Also, my private tutor, Janak Babu, made me believe that it was possible for a Bhojpuri-speaking Hindi/Urdu-medium student like me to learn the language. After 10 months with Janaki Babu, I started reading comics in English. Two years later, in 1988, I read my first English novel, Khushwant Singh's Train to Pakistan. The first book I actually bought myself was A Strange and Sublime Address by Amit Chaudhuri for the princely sum of Rs. 30 from a roadside bookseller.

Read the following passage:

1. The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) defines eco-tourism as "responsible travel to natural areas that conserve the environment and sustain the well-being of local people."
2. Responsible tourism observes basic eco-ethical tenets. Fundamental rights like the right to exist or to live in peace, right to pure air and pure water are basic rights even for wildlife, indigenous people as well as for nature as whole.
3. Nature tourism and wildlife tourism are top priority for most foreign tourists, but in the Indian context, all picnics, nature walks, nature camps, trekking, hiking, safaris, jungle trails, mountaineering, cultural tours, pilgrimages, beaching, water sports, canoeing, boating and game-fishing should all observe eco-ethics. One step forward in ecotourism is to get involved in eco-restoration, biodiversity restoration and eco-development of local people in any degraded tourist ecosystem.
4. India, with her kaleidoscopic ecosystems and a wealth of cultural heritage of great antiquity has immense scope for ecotourism. Constant research to identify newer areas and spots for ecotourism, preparing brochures on them and on the eco-ethics relevant to each. Organising environmental trails and training knowledgeable guides, preferably using the services of the local people are the obligations of the tourism department.
5. This novel concept of ecotourism is so visionary that in the long run, it would be much viable economically, sustainable ecologically, acceptable socially and ideal philosophically rather than traditional tourism.

On the basis of your understanding of the passage, answer the following:

Read the following passage:

1. The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) defines eco-tourism as "responsible travel to natural areas that conserve the environment and sustain the well-being of local people."
2. Responsible tourism observes basic eco-ethical tenets. Fundamental rights like the right to exist or to live in peace, right to pure air and pure water are basic rights even for wildlife, indigenous people as well as for nature as whole.
3. Nature tourism and wildlife tourism are top priority for most foreign tourists, but in the Indian context, all picnics, nature walks, nature camps, trekking, hiking, safaris, jungle trails, mountaineering, cultural tours, pilgrimages, beaching, water sports, canoeing, boating and game-fishing should all observe eco-ethics. One step forward in ecotourism is to get involved in eco-restoration, biodiversity restoration and eco-development of local people in any degraded tourist ecosystem.
4. India, with her kaleidoscopic ecosystems and a wealth of cultural heritage of great antiquity has immense scope for ecotourism. Constant research to identify newer areas and spots for ecotourism, preparing brochures on them and on the eco-ethics relevant to each. Organising environmental trails and training knowledgeable guides, preferably using the services of the local people are the obligations of the tourism department.
5. This novel concept of ecotourism is so visionary that in the long run, it would be much viable economically, sustainable ecologically, acceptable socially and ideal philosophically rather than traditional tourism.

On the basis of your understanding of the passage, answer the following:

Read the following passage:

1. The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) defines eco-tourism as "responsible travel to natural areas that conserve the environment and sustain the well-being of local people."
2. Responsible tourism observes basic eco-ethical tenets. Fundamental rights like the right to exist or to live in peace, right to pure air and pure water are basic rights even for wildlife, indigenous people as well as for nature as whole.
3. Nature tourism and wildlife tourism are top priority for most foreign tourists, but in the Indian context, all picnics, nature walks, nature camps, trekking, hiking, safaris, jungle trails, mountaineering, cultural tours, pilgrimages, beaching, water sports, canoeing, boating and game-fishing should all observe eco-ethics. One step forward in ecotourism is to get involved in eco-restoration, biodiversity restoration and eco-development of local people in any degraded tourist ecosystem.
4. India, with her kaleidoscopic ecosystems and a wealth of cultural heritage of great antiquity has immense scope for ecotourism. Constant research to identify newer areas and spots for ecotourism, preparing brochures on them and on the eco-ethics relevant to each. Organising environmental trails and training knowledgeable guides, preferably using the services of the local people are the obligations of the tourism department.
5. This novel concept of ecotourism is so visionary that in the long run, it would be much viable economically, sustainable ecologically, acceptable socially and ideal philosophically rather than traditional tourism.

On the basis of your understanding of the passage, answer the following:

Read the following passage:

1. The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) defines eco-tourism as "responsible travel to natural areas that conserve the environment and sustain the well-being of local people."
2. Responsible tourism observes basic eco-ethical tenets. Fundamental rights like the right to exist or to live in peace, right to pure air and pure water are basic rights even for wildlife, indigenous people as well as for nature as whole.
3. Nature tourism and wildlife tourism are top priority for most foreign tourists, but in the Indian context, all picnics, nature walks, nature camps, trekking, hiking, safaris, jungle trails, mountaineering, cultural tours, pilgrimages, beaching, water sports, canoeing, boating and game-fishing should all observe eco-ethics. One step forward in ecotourism is to get involved in eco-restoration, biodiversity restoration and eco-development of local people in any degraded tourist ecosystem.
4. India, with her kaleidoscopic ecosystems and a wealth of cultural heritage of great antiquity has immense scope for ecotourism. Constant research to identify newer areas and spots for ecotourism, preparing brochures on them and on the eco-ethics relevant to each. Organising environmental trails and training knowledgeable guides, preferably using the services of the local people are the obligations of the tourism department.
5. This novel concept of ecotourism is so visionary that in the long run, it would be much viable economically, sustainable ecologically, acceptable socially and ideal philosophically rather than traditional tourism.

On the basis of your understanding of the passage, answer the following: