- The document discusses the life and works of several Indian authors, including Kamla Das, Anees Jung, and others who wrote about the struggles of women and marginalized groups in India. - It describes stories that highlight issues like poverty, child labor, caste discrimination, and the difficulties faced by rag pickers, bangle makers, and aging mothers. - The works convey themes of socio-economic injustice, oppression, and bring attention to the lives and hardships of people living in difficult circumstances.

3.  Born in Nimes(ne-mj).
 Attended school in Lyon.
 Began writer at 14.
 Forced to earn at 17.
 Contribute to figaro.
 Worked as Sec. to the duke.
 Married Jullia Allaed in 1868.

4.  Dauded joined army to fight in the
franco-Prussian war. Frances defeat had
a profound impact and reflected in his
stories contes du Lundi (Monday Tales),
a collection of stories published in 1873
in London, & shows the changebin
France fortune through the eye of a
younge boy.

5.  Rerate to culture & language.
 Hegemony of the imperial & colonial
power.
 Lust for ruling the world influencing
culture & identities.
 Pathos of the likely languages crisis.
 Language: an asset, more so in times of
crisis.
 Fear, shame & agony of losing freedom of

6.  The prose ‘The Last Lesson’ , written by Alphonse
Daudet narrates about the year 1870 when the
Prussian forces under Bismark attacted and
capture France.
 The france districts of Alsace and Lorraine went
into Prussian hands.
 The new Prussian rulers discontinued the teaching
of French in the school of these two districts.
 The French teachers were asked to leave.

7.  The story describes the last day of one such
French teacher ,M.Hamel.
 Mr . M. Hamel had been transferred and could no
longer remain in his old school. Still he gave last
lesson to his students with utmost devotion and
sincerity as ever.
 The story depicts the pathos of the whole
situation about how people feel when they don’t
learn their own language and then losing an asset
in M.Hamel.

8.  One of his students Franz who dreaded French
class and M.Hamel’s iron rod, come to the school
that day thinking he would be punished as he had
not learnt his lesson of participate.
 But on reaching school he found Hamel dressed in
Sunday clothes and all the old people of the village
sitting there.
 It was due to an order on the bulletin board.
That was the first day when he realised for the first
time that how important French was for him, but it
was his last lesson in French.

12.  What does the story suggest about how the
students can be motivated to learn?
 Do you find Franz’s change of attitude realistic?
Explain.
Extending
History is full of instances in which victorious
nations outlawed to suppress the language of the
conquage people. Why do you think language can
seem so.

13.  Important? How would you feel if you
were forced to give up your language?
 What lesson does the story ‘The Last
Lesson’ have for the people facing such
a challange?

14.  Man’s envy of the free world of nature.
 Bondinges in the human world.
 ‘when a people are enslaved, as long as they hold
fast to their language it is as if they had the key
to their prison.’
 Language links culture and society which, in turn,
unite people and eventually liberate them from
political subordination.

16. 1 Anees junk is an Indian women
author, journalist and a columnist
for major newspaper in India
and abroad, whose most noted
work, Unveiling India(1987) was a
detailed chronicle of the lives of
women in India.

17.  The story describe the life of the rag
picker who have migration from Dhaka to
Seemapuri in search of a living. Their
green fields back home had been swept
away by the storms. Saheb is one such rag
picker who scroungers for ‘gold’ as in
gaebage every morning because garbage
to them is gold and their daily bread.

18.  The word garbage has a different
meaning for their parents and these
children. To their parents, it’s their
means of survival and for the children,
it is wrapped in wonder. Sahib gets
really fascunated when he tells the
narrator that sometimes he even finds a
ten rupee note in the garbage. These
children have dreams and desires but
no means to achieve them.

19.  They lack basic amenities like shoes
and try to be happy by justifying that it
is a tradition to remain or stay barefoot.
They are caught in the blemishes of
caste in which they are caught.

21.  The story deals with the life of Mukesh
who belongs to the family of bangle
makers. Approximately 20,000 children
are engaged in this business of bangle
making unaware of the law that
forbids them to do so. They live in very
poor condition and miserable working
conditions.

22.  The childrens working under such harmful and
terrible atmosphere lose their eyesight or
sometimes even go blind before stepping into
adoltood. In fact,their eyes are more adjusted
to the dark than to the light. Mukesh’s
grandmother has accepted tjis lifestyle and says
that it’s her husband’s ‘karma’. His destiny that
he her husbands ‘karma’ , his density that he
has gone blind with the dust from polishing the
bangles. On being asked by the narrator into
cooperatives they reply that even it they get
organished they will be the one who will be
mistreated, beaten and jailed by the police for
doing something illegal.

23.  Because there is no leader among them
they don’t look thinks differently. They
are caught in a vicious circle of the
‘sahukaar’ , the keepers of the law, the
bureaucrats and the politicians.
However, mukesh is different from the
rest of the folk there. He is content to
dream of cars that he sees hurting
down the streets of his town.

25.  (BORN Kamla; 31 March 1934- 31 May
2009)
 Also known by her one-time pen name
Madhavikutty and Kamala Das,
 Was an Indian English poet and litterateur
and at the same time a
leading Mlayalam author from Kerala,
India.

26.  In this poem, Kamala Das explores the theme of
ageing and death and isolation through a narration
involving her mother.
 White driving from her parent’s home to cochin, she
notices her mother sitting beside her dozing, her face
pale like a dead body and her thought far away. This
reminds her painfully that her mother is old and could
pass away leaving her alone.