Essay --

Change For the Better Life changes in an instant. One day youre just playing with your friends and the next your total life is ending. The events that happen in a persons life changes how they are as a person it can either make them a better person or destroy them. In the fiction The Separate Peace Finny grows as a person as the story progresses on, he faces gruelling locations that reveal hes inner self. In the beginning of the novel, Finny is an outstanding athlete, friendly, and he is able to talk his way out of whatever tough situation he she-bops himself into. He is a type of person who will do anything he trusts when he wants hes carefree. I was beginning to see that Phineas could get away with anything (Knowles 18). Finny is adventurous, he comes up with things sleep withing the risk of him getting in trouble is high. Finnys life was ruled by inspiration and anarchy, so he prized a set of rules(Knowles 26). He almost lived by his own rules, he did what he wanted, wha t made him happy. He is also quite innocent making him nave. Finny had deliberately set out to wreck my studies (Knowles 45). He doesnt do anything intentionally he actually thinks so highly of his friends, that they could never do any harm to him. No I just wanted to see if I could do it. Now I know. But I dont want to do it in public(Knowles 35). In the quote stated, his athletic skills really show and so does his innocence. He didnt need the whole school to know that he beat a swimming record him knowing was the best satisfaction he could have.In the midway of the novel, Finnys life takes a deed and goes downhill from thither. Sports are a big part of his life, without it, half of him is basically gone. Sports are finished for him, after an accident li... ...ly achieved when one is able to exonerate psyche who was set out to ruin their life. All in all, tough situations that a person goes through either make them or break them. In the novel The Separate Peace innocence vanish ed from Finny. The situations he went through made him understand life better. That life isnt always full of happiness there are bumps in the road. He had a harder time accepting that because his life was amazing in the beginning and he didnt expect it to take a flip that he nearly lost himself. Along with the things he went through he grew as a person the lost of his innocence made him see things clearer that there was bad sides to some situations. Finny saw that when Gene confesses that it was his fault that he fell off the tree, but he is mature about it because he was able to forgive Gene. Thats one thing he never lost though, kindness.

Full Stop, Why Apes Look Like People And The Escape :: essays research papers

Examine each hatchway sentence carefully. To what degree does each sentence give a clue as to the story, which is to follow, and the use of language indoors it? Refer to the sentences of Full Stop, Why Apes Look Like People and The Escape.A captivating origin is half the success for any story. The opening may be descriptive, full of sarcasm, unusual or exciting. It is the same with the opening var. to a song. Besides memorable lyrics and a beautiful melody, the friendly tune to a song makes it an all-timer in peoples minds and charts.However, I have missed out one important essence the opening sentence. Honestly, if not for this essay, I would never have thought that opening sentences could act as a theme, or bring with it much significance to the story. I always look at the opening of a story as a whole paragraph, thus overlooking the significance of the opening sentence.In the story, The Escape by Millie Murray, the use of punctuation mark is very important as it adds emotions to the characters and readers alike. The exclamation marks used showed extreme anger as two were used. The readers are suddenly plunged into the angry and abusive ground of Millie. We are like the children, forced to face the unreasonable father. If a full stop had been used, the father would seem friendly and cordial, which is far from his image.The scene is so sincere to the readers because the language adds realism to the story. Who put de clock back, eh The standard or Jamaican English gives us the picture that the father is not a native vocaliser of English but a Jamaican, providing a clue to his background and culture later on, as we know that My (Millie) father had trained as a teacher in Jamaica and that he was part Arawak Indian. The use of patois gives the readers a closer-to-life experience. It helps to guide us into the story. This is sometimes far better that a descriptive paragraph.This opening line has been carefully crafted by the author as it suggests a clue to the plot. Who put de clock back, eh, putting the clock back was the ploy used by Patsy (the mother) to escape and go home to her mother in Jamaica. It was originally Miz Rubys idea who chuckled about it. (Yu know de wo human beings leave de man sleeping inna bed, an take time to ease herself out de house, an when him wake up inna morning an she gone, him tink she it early an go back fi sleep.

Library :: essays research papers

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Two explosions rocked western capital of Iraqs al-Shulah neighborhood near a Shiite Muslim mosque on Sunday, cleansing at least 15 population and wounding at least 57, Iraqi patrol said.The initiative blast was triggered near the mosque -- and when people gathered near the scene, a suicide car bomber drove into the crowd and detonated the vehicle in the second blast, law said.Word of the blasts in the capital came just hours after give-and-take of two suicide car bombs in Tikrit, about 90 miles (150 km) north of Baghdad.The bombs exploded just 15 minutes and a short distance apart, killing at least six people and wounding 26 at an Iraqi Police Academy in Tikrit, according to an appointed with Tikrits governors office.Police were responding to the first explosion -- which happened in front of the police academy at 8 a.m. (12 a.m. EDT) -- when the second car bomb detonated close by at the meteorology building, the official said.In an earlier attack Saturd ay evening, seven commandos with Iraqs Interior Ministry were wounded when five mortar rounds landed inside their facility in the al-Baiya neighborhood of southwest Baghdad, Iraq police said. The attack in Tikrit, Saddam Husseins hometown, occurred as new recruits at the academy were about to travel to the Jordanian capital of Amman for a training program, police Lt. Shalan Allawi said, The Associated Press reported.A doctor at Tikrit General Hospital said the bombs killed four policemen and two civilians, with 23 policemen and several civilians wounded, AP reported. Elsewhere, three insurgents were killed Sunday as the wayside bomb they were trying to plant in the town of Mahawil exploded, police said in the nearby city of Hillah.The explosions follow the deaths of at least 12 people Saturday in a series of attacks by insurgents. The U.S. military said Task Force Baghdad soldiers arrested ogdoad people Saturday. They are suspected of shooting spile a commercial helicopter Thursd ay. The military said in a release that an "Iraqi civilian helped Task Force Baghdad soldiers find" eight people, who were being questioned in the crash that resulted in the deaths of 11 people on board. Six American security contractors, two Bulgarian crew members and two Fijian security guards were killed in the crash.A Bulgarian crew member who survived the crash was shot to death, according to the Bulgarian company that owned the helicopter.The helicopter was flying from Baghdad to the northern city of Tikrit when it went down just north of the capital.

grinch who stole christmas :: essays research papers

The time arrives but once a year --Chirstmas-time holiday with varying cheer.But buying and selling and buming and parking spur movie mischievers in invite of a larking.Theres snowflakes fallen and gently sprinkled,With all the little Whosters smiles frozen wrinkled.Sleeping and shopping for five minutes or less, fish filet a moment to see the Grinch and how he stole Christmas.This dastardly deed wont make Zanzibelt wail,This is a gift that wont fly through the mail.For youd be called names manage suffering maroon,If you miss this fable-ous live-action cartoon.Maniacal, magnificent, magical and merry --Driven through the snow by the one Jim Carrey.Soaring through sets bent by fantastical fancy,Hes everywhere the top, past the tip-top of Mount Clancey.The tiniest of hearts tale is whispered and told,But the green-haired shoulders break every mold.There once was a boy by the name of the Grinch, Rankled and ruptured puncture and pinchedSo his feet did move with speed and precision, Finding a home made of garbage...his decision."Those people of Whoville and that infernal time of year," Said the man who ate film over with wallowful jeers.But Whos are filled with spirits that sing,(A little off-tune, but to good intentions cling).The hoopla and crazitude centered on a girl,Named Cindy Lou Who, Taylor Momsen gave it a whirl.She questions each corner and scour for the answer,To why Christmas can make even the lazy pure dancers.Based on a book and cartoon by Doc Seuss,A pelt could have blown about the oddball recluse.But fantabulous sets and Cindy Lous sparkle,Tag-team with Carreys ability to spew the word "farkle". The wonderment remains, so watch, watch, watch --Or youll be laughed at like a boy named little Mike Rotch.The Docs main points stick like hair to glue, Its not too dark, so other critics Boo hooYou need to say why such a creature would steal,

University of Tennessee Sports :: Free Essay Writer

University of Tennessee Sports It has been a very busy and exciting workweek at the University of Tennessee. Students had their second week on campus after spring break so that meant a lot of tests to be taken. However, most people in East Tennessee cared more about the activities of the Vols Athletic Department. The week started with a look at the known - - namely the rig Phillip Fulmer led Football Volunteers starting their second week of spring practice. The Vols completed their first week of Spring Practice with a scrimmage on March 31st after learning of a knee injury to offensive tackle Michael Munoz. Coach Fulmer and his staff were not going to let that slow down their practice schedule. On Tuesday, the team continued their workouts at Neyland Stadium in a sportsmanlike rain with lots of rotation on the offensive line. Coach Fulmer said on Thursday that he has been pleased with the progress of the offensive linemen and hopes to develop plenteous talent this spring and summer to have lots of depth on the line. Be assured that Coach Fulmer and his entire staff are looking front to the Orange and White Game on April 21st and to welcoming the latest recruiting class to Knoxville this summer. Of course there was some other news up on the hill this week. In case you missed it, the Mens Basketball Team has a new coach. Robert Buzz Peterson is coming to lead the Vols to the next direct of the college basketball hierarchy. Coach Peterson comes to Knoxville after a season at Tulsa where he led his team to the National Invitational Tournament championship. Prior to his stint at Tulsa, he was head coach of Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. But what most people recall about Coach Peterson is that he was Michael Jordans roommate when they played for Dean Smith at the University of North Carolina, winning the NCAA Championship in 1982. Coach Peterson brings a lot of excitement and energy to the Volunteers. The players seemed animated after their first meeting with Coach Peterson. Jenis Grindstaff said that having the coaching decision finalized will allow the team to focus on the next season and real likes the enthusiasm that Coach Peterson brings. Forward Ron Slay said that Peterson has already challenged him to a game of pool.

University of Tennessee Sports :: Free Essay Writer

University of Tennessee Sports It has been a very busy and exciting week at the University of Tennessee. Students had their second week on campus later(prenominal) spring break so that meant a lot of tests to be taken. However, most people in East Tennessee cared more about the activities of the Vols Athletic Department. The week started with a look at the known - - namely the Coach Ppitchers moundip Fulmer led Football Volunteers starting their second week of spring practice. The Vols completed their first week of springtime Practice with a scrimmage on March 31st after learning of a knee injury to offensive tackle Michael Munoz. Coach Fulmer and his stave were not going to let that slow down their practice schedule. On Tuesday, the team continued their workouts at Neyland Stadium in a light rain down with lots of rotation on the offensive line. Coach Fulmer said on Thursday that he has been pleased with the progress of the offensive linemen and hopes to develop enough endowment fund this spring and summer to have lots of depth on the line. Be assured that Coach Fulmer and his entire staff are looking forward to the orangish and White Game on April 21st and to welcoming the latest recruiting class to Knoxville this summer. Of course there was some other news up on the hill this week. In case you missed it, the Mens Basketball Team has a new coach. Robert Buzz Peterson is coming to lead the Vols to the next level of the college basketball hierarchy. Coach Peterson comes to Knoxville after a season at Tulsa where he led his team to the National Invitational Tournament championship. Prior to his stint at Tulsa, he was head coach of Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. But what most people recall about Coach Peterson is that he was Michael Jordans roommate when they played for Dean Smith at the University of North Carolina, winning the NCAA Championship in 1982. Coach Peterson brings a lot of excitement and energy to the V olunteers. The players seemed enthusiastic after their first meeting with Coach Peterson. Jenis Grindstaff said that having the coaching decision finalized will allow the team to focus on the next season and really likes the enthusiasm that Coach Peterson brings. Forward Ron Slay said that Peterson has already challenged him to a game of pool.

Mixed branding Essay

Definition Mixed Branding is where a firm markets products under its own name and that of the reseller(s) because the segment attracted to the reseller is several(predicate) than its own market. Eg. The company sells its Elizabeth Arden stag through department stores and a line of skincare products at Wal-Mart with the Skinsimple brand name. StratergiesWhen promoting a brand, companies sometimes choose to follow a multiproduct branding schema, similar to automakers Ford and Toyota. In this regard, a companys name is an umbrella brand for all its products. Coca-Cola, Apple and Intel have focused their energies on branding their corporate names and images rather than individual products. Grocery chains and big-box retailers use private-label branding to attract value-conscious customers.AdvantagesCompanies use branding to differentiate their products based on value, quality and other attributes. A positive brand image creates a halo effect that affects existing products and makes it easier to introduce new products. The Intel Inside campaign, for example, was designed to brand all Intel microprocessors as high-performance and high-quality products. Apple has followed a somewhat different route because it relies on its corporate name and unique product brands.A mixed-branding strategy can leverage a companys reputation for innovation to carve out profitable market niches, such as Apples Mac computers for graphics-intensive operations, while developing entirely new markets, examples of which would be iPods and iPads. Kraft consumers know they are getting a quality food product, which makes it easier and more efficient for Kraft to introduce and gain consumer acceptance for new products.DisadvantagesThe main disadvantage of branding is the high advertising and related public relations costs. Establishing a topical anesthetic or international brand requires yearsof sustained advertising, high levels of quality and exceptional customer service. A brand image and reputation cannot be established in a few weeks. Companies must continue their promotions even during economic downturns or when sales stagnate, because if they do not, competitors might fill the void and be in a better position when the economy turns around.These expenditures can reduce margins, especially if sales volumes are being affected by price competition or changing customer preferences. Also, there is the risk that poor customer service by wholesalers or retailers in the distribution channel might reflect unwell on the brand itself. Manufacturing issues that lead to product recalls, such as Toyotas well-publicized problems with brakes from 2009 to 2011, can also affect a brands image, which commonly requires additional expenditures to repair.

The Effects of Cultural Assimilation: Conformity vs. Unorthodoxdy

The Effects of Cultural Assimilation Conformity vs. Unorthodoxdy Cultural immersion is a complex and multifaceted process that first involves immigrants learning the language, ethnical norms, and procedure expectations of the absorbing society, and further changes in attitudes, or so it is explained by Dejun Su, Chad Richardson, and Guang-zhen Wang, in their article, Assessing Cultural Assimilation of Mexican Americans How Rapidly Do Their Gender-Role Attitudes Converge to the U. S. Mainstream? (764).Throughout history and overly array day society, heathen socialization is easy to be identified, thanks to the melting pot quality of magnetic north America. Also, cultural assimilation is movemented about the do it has on various groups of immigrants. Effects, such as the loss of ones identity, the struggle to attain success in the new coun depict, the loss of ones heritage and laughable background, conflict betwixt family and friends and stereotypical discrimination in soci ety, are demonstrated in varying degrees by the past and lay out generations of immigrants from the countries of Mexico, Japan and the Middle East.Throughout history, Mexican immigrants strike forever crossed the boarder into America for the chance of a new life. However, coming to a new country inevitably has its consequences, and the pressures of assimilation are always present. During a time of great immigration of European citizens into the get together States, Mexican immigrants were not so much of a concern throughout the whole country.Katherine Benton-Cohen supports this idea in her article Other Immigrants Mexicans and the Dillingham Commission of 1907-1911, by explaining that, Unlike Nipponese immigration in Californiawhich had set international diplomatic maneuvers in motion, in this extent American officials generally viewed Mexican immigration as a local labor issue, not a national or international policy question (39). As a result, the Mexican immigrants were not so quick as to forget their culture, but as keen-sighted as they were willing to work for weeny wages, this resistance did not bother Americans.Benton-Cohen similarly points out that While the Mexicans are not easily assimilated, this is not of very great importance as long as most of them return to their native land after a short time(Benton-Cohen, 38). This resulted in the effects that the Mexican immigrants were unable to attain high wages, or to gain success in America. However, new effects came into account as time went on, and more Mexicans continuously moved to America. Compared to past Mexican immigrant challenges, present day effects have drastically changed.As the population of Mexican immigrants has grown overtime, so has the attention and concern towards their living and adaptation to a new country. It is believed that in the article The Kids are (Mostly) Alright Second-Generation Assimilation written by Richard Alba, Philip Kasinitz and Mary C. Waters, that In gener al, the second generation is doing much better than its parents in educational advancement and is less concentrated in immigrant jobs (763). However, this does not justify the fact that the pressures of cultural assimilation are much more developed in todays society than in the past.Alba then goes on to point out that The overwhelming majority of the second generation is completely fluent in English Yet most of its members have not reached parity with native whites, and many experience racial discrimination (Alba, 763). This statement goes to show that the newer society of Mexican Immigrants find that resisting cultural assimilation, is a greater risk than when the older generations came to find meager jobs. Another example of the effects the newer generation must face, would be the struggle to be successful in school.In the article, Immigrant Families and Children (Re)Develop Identities in a New Context, the author, Mariana Souto-Manning, talk about a young Hispanic boy she had in class, and the effects of his mothers attempt for cultural assimilation had on him. When Souto-Manning meets to discusses the boy, his mother confesses, I decided to give him an American name so that no one would k forthwith he is Mexican. So that he would have a better chance to be successful in school than his brothers (402).Based on experience, she thought that by changing the boys name from Idelbrando to the American name Tommy, she could save him from the cultural stereotypes that might hinder his schooling experience (Souto-Manning, 402). However, she also left him vulnerable to the effects of cultural assimilation that are the loss of ones identity, and the loss of ones heritage and unique background. Idelbrando is not the only Mexican immigrant who has been effected in this way. In fact, it is common for many Mexican immigrants to change their name, but it doesnt stop t here(predicate).If the belief that cultural assimilation makes it easier for Mexican immigrants to become successful, then the immigrants would need to change much more than their names going as far as to cast their own culture to the incline and fully assimilate to the American culture. Another example of complete cultural assimilation and its consequences, would be in Joy Kogawas Novel Obasan. In this novel, the main character, Naomi, and her Japanese family are face up with the discrimination and cruel treatment of Japanese-Canadians that was practiced in Canada at the time of founding Was II.Still, throughout all the hardship and pressures of conformity she was faced to go through, Naomi managed to keep much of her Japanese roots that were apart of her since birth. At one point in the novel, Naomi points out the differences in her and her brothers lunches and describes,My lunch that Obasan made is ii moist and sticky rice balls with a salty red plum in the center of each, a boiled egg to the side with a strong square of lightly boiled greens (182). In this description, it is evident that Naomi remains accustomed to her Japanese upbringing.On the other hand, Naomi explains that Stephen has peanut-butter sandwiches, an apple, and a thermos of soup (Kogawa, 182). Therefore show that, unlike Naomi, her brother Stephen does not cumber strong to his Japanese culture, and falls to the pressures of cultural assimilation. Naomi then goes on to explain how She Obasan mends and re-mends his Stephen old socks and shirt which he neer wears and sets the table with food, which he often does not eat. Sometimes he leaps up in the middle of nothing at all and goes off (Kogawa, 259).Sadly, Naomis explanation suggests that Stephen has departed as far as to shun anything to do with his Japanese Culture. Another example of Stephens reluctance, is when Naomi asks Stephen what at that place Aunt Emily is like, and he replies, Shes not like them while jerk his thumb at Uncle and Obasan ( Kogawa, 259). Additionally, this behavior is an example of how cultural assimilation can effect the bonds of family and friends, and cause conflict amidst them. While the percentage of Japanese immigrants travel to North America is ot as prominent as in the past, the Japanese culture is still ever present throughout society. As well, after World War II, Japanese immigrants seemed less of a threat, and their cultural differences slowly became more acceptable among society. However, the pressures of cultural assimilation are not completely eliminated for this culture. People of Japanese heritage living in North America, today, still feel the pressures of cultural assimilation, but mostly in the effect of stereotyping.For instance, in the article Japanese planetary Female Students Experience of Discrimination, Prejudice, and Stereotypes by authors Claude Bonazzo and Y. Joel Wong, it is acknowledged that Portrayals of Japanese culture and the Japanese in recent Hollywood movies such as The Last Samurai, Lost in Translation, and Memoirs of a Geisha might play a role in shaping Americans perceptions and stereotypes of Japanese international students (paragraph 5).In otherwords, they believe that Americans may get the wrong tender of the Japanese culture, which create false myths and unrealistic stereotypes for people of Japanese culture. Bonazzo then goes to explain how Another common stereotype that Asians living in the United States adventure is the racialization of their ethnicity Americans have the tendency to lump Asians of different ethnic groups into one homogenous racial category by downplaying ethnic differences (Bonazzo, paragraph 16).Thus proving, that although the pressure to assimilate to the North American culture is not as strong, Japanese immigrants are now pressured with living up to false stereotypes that the consequences of over-assuming can create. Before September 11th, conflict between the cultures of Americans and Middle Eastern immigrants, mostly were the result of their clashing ghostly practices. While America is a c ountry of religious freedom, the most common religion here was, and is Christianity. Likewise, the common religion practiced in the Middle East is Islam.However, although it is legally acceptable for Muslim immigrants to practice their religion in America, there was still sway as to the acceptability among Christian Americans. For instance, in the article Islam in America, written by authors Ghosh, Abel, Lieblich, Scherer, Newton-Small, Dias, Steinmetz and Ford, a Christian preacher, Reverend Wayne Devrou, claims that The political objective of Islam is to shadow the world with its teachings and to have domination of all other religions militarily (paragraph 4).This idea, however, is not true, because it is often the case that Americans misunderstand the religion of Islam, and in some cases, it is the Christian extremists who try to push their religion onto the Middle Eastern immigrants. Gosh then goes on to explain how, To be a Muslim in America now is to endure slings and arrows against your religious beliefnot just in the schoolyard and the office but also outside your place of worship and in the public square, where some of the countrys most powerful mainstream religious and political leaders unthinkingly (or worse, deliberately) conflate Islam with terrorism and savagery (Ghosh, paragraph 12).This explanation illustrates the effects of Middle Eastern immigrants not assimilating, and the conflict is causes between the two cultures. Then on September 11th, 2001, the cause of conflict between Middle Eastern immigrants and Americans drastically changed. When a group of terrorist of Middle Eastern ethnicity, were responsible for the close of thousands and the devastation of the whole country of the United States, an idea called Islamophobia settled into the minds of many Americans.In his article, Confronting Islamophobia in the United States framing civil rights activism among Middle Eastern Americans, Erik Love states that Islamophobia is a problematic ne ologism, and the one that is currently the most common term used to refer to bigotry, discrimination, policies and practices directed towards Islam and a racialized group of people that includes Muslims, which verifies that after 9/11 the discrimination of Islam is not the main focus of terrified Americans (402).Americans instead focus on the distinction of appearance that is particular to the Middle East race. Love also argues that, Islamophobia, in short, affects a racialized group of people- Middle Eastern Americans- /that, like any racialized group, is in fact comprised of an irreducibly diverse collection of individuals who identify with many different ethnicities, nationalities and religions which in other words means that not all Middle Eastern immigrants are a terrorist or a threat in anyway to the United States (Love, 402).In fact, when first noticing the presence of a person of a Middle Eastern race, for some Americans, the word Muslim no longer automatically comes to mind . Terrorist is the word that is now associated with this race, and because it all is based on the appearance of the race, no amount of cultural assimilation can extinguish this effect of stereotypical discrimination still present today.Furthermore, because the effects of cultural assimilation depend on the circumstance, the time period, the culture and the person, each output is different as to whether keeping a strong hold on to ones unique culture when pressured by a new environment is the right thing to do. Also, as time progresses, so does the idea that complete cultural assimilation is not necessary for immigrants to survive in a new country and more people are becoming proud of their cultural background.In fact, on the website, Thinkexist. com a quote by Donna Taylor can be found to support the idea that our country is no longer a melting pot where assimilation is the goal, but a great mosaic where each culture adds its uniqueness to make the whole better (Donna Taylor Quotes ). Finally, although Cultural Assimilation is still present today, there is less pressure to conform to ones surrounding, and overall, there is a more open-minded feeling towards the blends and coincidence of different cultures.

Carlos Ghosn Leader of Nissan and Renault

Individual Term Paper Case 11 Carlos Ghosn Multicultural Leader as chief operating officer of Nissan and Renault Executive abridgment Leadership is the ability to influence others to achieve a common goal. horti goal is the values, understandings, assumptions, and goals that ar passed from generation to generation. Strategy is the choices an organization recognises on how they provide operate and tell themselves from competitors. whole of these three varicapables ( lead, socialisation and strategy) make up the fashion modelula for thriving performance of a firm P=f (L+C+S).A firms successful performance depends on strong attractorship, adaptability to any culture, and a strong strategy. Leadership, grow and Strategy all told need to work hand-in-hand for an organization to be successful and achieve their goals. The problem many mangers face is the ability to have a Global Mindset, adapt to many different cultures, and have the flexibility to make adjustments in any situa tion. Carlos Ghosn, a French businessman, born in Brazil to Lebanese parents, became the CEO of both Renault and Nissan. Carlos was a successful and effective leader because he had a Global Mindset.Carlos knew how to listen, kept his promises, encouraged, move, and instilled a sense of urgency in the Japanese workers. Carlos Ghosn was able to turnaround Nissan from $254 million in losses and a debt of $19 billion. sluice though he was not Japanese and faced many challenges, he was able to revive the ailing Japanese automobile company, Nissan, within two years. magic spell in Japan, Carlos Ghosn do culture a priority, was able to adapt to the Japanese culture, and even received praises from the Japanese workers and public.Carlos Ghosns strategy of forming cross-functional teams among the Japanese workers was hard at first due to their resistance but the teams ended up bringing much success to the revivification of Nissan, while also being the CEO of Renault. Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Renault and Nissan, is a perfect example of the formula for successful performance of a firm P=f (L+C+S). Therefore, I recommend that all managers make culture a priority. In order for a firm to have successful performance in an organization, there should be a strong crew of leadership, culture, and strategy.Managers must be able to have a combination of all three to be able to run a company successfully in a foreign country. Leadership is culturally contingent so being able to adapt to any culture will shape a managers leadership style, strateg and the mission and mint of an organization. Leadership, Culture & Strategy Leadership is the ability to influence others to achieve a common goal. Leadership is also the ability to influence wads way of thinking, their attitudes, and their behaviors. Leadership is culturally-contingent culture influences leadership in many ways.In order to motivate others, a leader needs to understand the needs, goals, value systems, and expectations o f the tidy sum no matter their culture or background. No single style of leadership works for every culture, country, or situation. The perception of what makes a successful leader varies from one culture to another. A leader is responsible for running the entire organization and has the responsibility of deciding what leadership style to use in distributively of the countries they are working in. An effective leader successfully carries out the mission and vision of the organization.For an organization to achieve their goals, effective leadership is crucial. Effective leaders turn in about the global business world, are able to adapt to any culture, and are organization-savvy. Effective loaders have a Global Mindset a to a greater extent flexible style of leadership that can be applied to any organization anywhere in the world. Carlos Ghosn, CEO of both French Renault and Japanese Nissan, was a successful leader with a Global Mindset. Carlos knew how to motivate his employees an d knew how to work with multicultural teams.Motivation and leadership is affected by cultural, societal, and political variables. Culture also affects the mission and vision of the organization. Culture is the values, understandings, assumptions, and goals that are passed from generation to generation. Culture is what the people in a particular society believe, follow, and pass on from generation to generation, think, want and would like to achieve. Culture influences how people behave, what they expect from leaders, what kind of influence the leader will have, and what kind of leadership style a manager should follow.not all cultures can be motivated in the same way. Managers need to know everything they can about a culture so they can use the best leadership style applicable to that culture. Managers will need to adjust their leadership style to accommodate the norms, attitudes, and other variables within the culture. It is very important for the managers of an organization to und erstand the culture of the country they will be working in. They have to learn and study the language, behaviors, body language, religion, politics, g overnment, etc.Culture influences negotiations, the decision-making process, agreements, concessions, the way information is perceived, and the way business is handled. Lack of in-depth knowledge of a countrys culture could lead to failure, loss of money and time, unhappy employees, and a broken contract for an organization. Culture also affects the strategy an organization chooses for competitive advantage over competitors. An organizations strategy is how they wish to compete in the business world. Strategy is the choices an organization makes on the way they will operate and differentiates themselves from the competitors.Leadership and motivation are very important factors in implementing a successful strategy in an organization. An organizations strategy will give them the competitive advantage in the global business world. The Po wer of the 3 The formula for successful performance of a firm is P=f (L+C+S). A firm is able to perform due to the Leadership, Culture and Strategy of the organization and is dependent on the three. In order for a firm to be successful, leadership, culture and strategy must work hand-in-hand for the organization to achieve their goals.Leadership is dependent on Culture, Culture influences Leadership and the Strategy helps the organization have a competitive advantage over competitors. All three go hand-in-hand for a firm to achieve success. Without effective leadership, a culture will not be able to put their strategy to work. Not all leadership styles will work in all cultures. Cultural variables (values, work norms, locus of control, etc) affects everyone involved and shapes the leadership role. Managers need to make adjustments to their leadership styles depending on the country they are working in.They must adjust their leadership behaviors according to the norms, attitudes and variables in the society. All three variables (leadership, culture, and strategy) are necessary for an organization to work and be successful. Case Analysis Carlos Ghosn Carlos Ghosn, CEO of both Nissan and Renault, became a successful French businessman, an effective global leader, and a multicultural manager because of his strong leadership skills, culture adaptability, and strong strategy. Carlos Ghosn was able to revive Nissan from $254 million in losses and a debt of $19 billion within two years.Carlos success was due to the un-Japanese changes he brought to the Japanese company, by persuading Japanese workers to accept change, and by implementing a sense of urgency in them. Carlos Ghosn motivated the employees, established high goals, and made responsibility clear to all levels of workers. Carlos Ghosn expected the Japanese workers to participate in the decision-making process, took their suggestions, lifted morale, and did not accept any excuses from them only solutions. Carl os Ghosn, an effective but unconventional leader, was simple, straightforward, and transparent.Carlos Ghosns transparency made him an effective leader. Carlos Ghosn was an un-Japanese manager running a Japanese company while still being the CEO of the French company Renault. Carlos faced many challenges because he knew nothing about Japan, their culture, or their language. Carlos made cultural diversity a priority by attending all Japanese events, by stressing face-to-face meetings with Japanese workers, by listening to all employees, and by respecting the Japanese culture. He avoided blending the French and Japanese cultures and appreciated the differences in the cultures.He made bold decisions, shook the reach of the Japanese workers even though it was against their culture, made English the official language, and even had to hire a bodyguard when the environment was tense at the Japanese & French company headquarters. Carlos Ghosn was more concerned with making the companies pro fitable rather than being culturally sensitive Carlos Ghosns strategy was cross-functional teams. Even though it was hard to form cross-functional teams among the Japanese workers because of their resistance, Carlos explained why they were necessary and how they would bring overall benefits to the company.Cross-functional teams were formed and Carlos made them all responsible and accountable for their actions. All Japanese workers were involved in the revival of Nissan and the Japanese workers began accepting and trusting Carlos Ghosn. The revival of Nissan was a success because every worker was involved and Japanese workers knew they had a voice at Nissan. Conclusion In conclusion, Carlos Ghosn and his successful revival of Nissan, is a great example of the formula for firm performance P=f (L+C+S).Carlos was a strong, effective leader and a mutlticultural expert whose innovative management practices brought him much success both at Nissan and Renault. A firms performance is conting ent of Leadership, Culture and Strategy. Above all, Culture has the most influence over Leadership. Culture shapes the leadership style, mission, vision, and strategy of an organization. A manager needs to be ready to adapt and adjust to any culture or situation to be successful. An effective leader is one who has a strong leadership style that can adapt to any culture and has a strong strategy to implement.

Managing Organisational Change

International Journal of Public Sector Management Emerald Article Managing plaqueal motley in the state-supported arna Lessons from the privatisation of the shoes Service Agency Ron Coram, Bernard Burnes Article information To cite this roll Ron Coram, Bernard Burnes, (2001),Managing organisational adjustment in the man orbit Lessons from the privatisation of the Property Service Agency, International Journal of Public Sector Management, Vol. 14 Iss 2 pp. 94 110 Permanent link to this document http//dx. doi. org/10. 108/09513550110387381 Downloaded on 17-01-2013 References This document contains references to 56 new(prenominal) documents Citations This document has been cited by 14 new(prenominal) documents To copy this document emailprotected com This document has been galvanic pileloaded 4884 times since 2005. * Users who downloaded this Article also downloaded * Ron Coram, Bernard Burnes, (2001),Managing organisational budge in the world sector Lessons from the p rivatisation of the Property Service Agency, International Journal of Public Sector Management, Vol. 4 Iss 2 pp. 94 110 http//dx. doi. org/10. 1108/09513550110387381 Ron Coram, Bernard Burnes, (2001),Managing organisational deepen in the merciful beings sector Lessons from the privatisation of the Property Service Agency, International Journal of Public Sector Management, Vol. 14 Iss 2 pp. 94 110 http//dx. doi. org/10. 1108/09513550110387381 Ron Coram, Bernard Burnes, (2001),Managing organisational change in the mankind sector Lessons from the privatisation of the Property Service Agency, International Journal of Public Sector Management, Vol. 4 Iss 2 pp. 94 110 http//dx. doi. org/10. 1108/09513550110387381 Access to this document was given(p) through an Emerald subscription provided by Edinburgh Napier University For Authors If you would wish hearty to spell for this, or any other Emerald universalation, then please use our Emerald for Authors service. Information abou t how to choose which state-supportedation to write for and submission guidelines atomic number 18 available for all. Please visit www. emeraldinsight. com/authors for more information. About Emerald www. emeraldinsight. om With oer forty years experience, Emerald Group Publishing is a leading independent publishing house of global research with impact in business, society, public policy and education. In total, Emerald publishes over 275 diarys and more than 130 book series, as well as an bulky range of online products and services. Emerald is both COUNTER 3 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also dissembles with Portico and the LOCKSS possibility for digital archive preservation. *Related content and download information correct at time of download.The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at http//www. emerald-library. com/ft IJPSM 14,2 94 Lessons from the privatisation of t he Property Service Agency Manchester take of Management, UMIST, Manchester, UK Keywords organizational change, Public sector solicitude, Privatization, Government agencies, Public authority assets compend Whilst organisational change attends to be happening with increasing frequency and magnitude in both the public and hush-hush sectors, roughly of the study studies of change counseling on the private sector and tend to derive their feeleres to change from that sector.From a review of the literature, it is argued that thither is no unitary best way to behave organisational change precisely that public sector organisations postulate to adopt an get on to change which matches their needs and situation. The article examines the privatisation of the Property Services Agency (prostate specific antigen) in give to draw lessons as to how the public sector send word and should distinguish change. It is shown that the privatisation was characterised by a lack of clarity, an over-emphasis on changes to structures and procedures, and staff resistance.How constantly, underpinning this was an inappropriate advancement to change. The article concludes that the primary(prenominal) lessons of the prostate specific antigens privatisation are that, in much(prenominal) circumstances, it is aimd to adopt an come near to change which in unifieds both the structural and cultural aspects of change, and which recognises the need to appreciate and respond to staff fears and concerns. Managing organisational change in the public sector Ron Coram and Bernard Burnes The International Journal of Public Sector Management, Vol. 14 No. 2, 2001, pp. 94-110. MCB University Press, 0951-3558 Introduction From Kurt Le throw outs work in the 1940s to the pre displace day, organisational change, as a systematic process, has moved from being a topic of interest to single a few academics and practitioners to one that is seen as lying at the core of organisational life (Sen ior, 1997 Stickland, 1998). However, whilst organisational change appears to be happening with increasing frequency and magnitude in both the public and private sectors, most of the major studies of and snugglees to change with well-nigh notable exceptions (e. g.Pettigrew et al. , 1992) focalize on the private sector and tend to derive their approaches to change from that sector (e. g. Kanter et al. , 1992 Kotter, 1996 Mabey and Mayon-White, 1993 Pettigrew, 1985 Smith, 1997). Not only does this underplay the enormous changes which adjudge taken place and are continuing to take place in the public sector, only it also ignores the need to develop approaches to change which are in tune with the circumstances in which public service organisations now find themselves (Flynn and Williams, 1997 Salauroo and Burnes, 1998).Though at that place pass on been some(prenominal) well-publicised examples of public sector change come acrosss which have gone badly wrong (Brindle, 1999), t here is no evidence to show that public sector managers are, inherently, any less capable of managing change than their private sector counterparts (Ferlie et al. , 1996). However, the challenges they face are different from those of their private sector counterparts, especially in cost of public accountability, demonstrating value for money, and in meeting the increasing expectations, regarding service levels and quality, of both the general public and politicians.Over the last 20 years, one of the most significant challenges that public sector managers have had to cope with, and one which has taken them into unknown territory, has been that the boundary between the public and private sector has become increasingly hazy (Crouch and Streeck, 1997 Flynn, 1993). In the UK, which has tended to be at the forefront of these developments, some public services, or parts of them, have been and are being piece out to private tender (e. g. he precaution of some schools and local education authorities) in other fields, public bodies have been turned into quasi-independent organisations (e. g. the Benefits Agency) and, in other instances, some organisations have been and are being privatised in their entirety (e. g. public utilities). All these forms of organisational change throw up their own dilemmas and challenges, and they all carry an approach to change which is appropriate to the circumstances involved. However, as Dunphy and Stace (1993) argued, there is no one approach which is suitable for all circumstances and preys.This article examines one particular and major form of organisational change which continues to have a large impact on the public sector privatisation. It focuses upon the Property Services Agency (prostate specific antigen) which, until its privatisation in the early 1990s, was accountable for the construction, important(prenominal)tenance and management of all the UK authoritiess buildings and airscrew. By presenting a compositors case study of the privatisation of the prostate specific antigen, the article seeks to draws lessons as to how the public sector can and should manage change.The article begins by reviewing the literature on change management. In particular, it draws attention to the need to recognise that there is no one best way to manage organisational change. This is followed by a description of the background to our research on the PSA, and the presentation of the case study itself. As the subsequent discussion section shows, the privatisation of the PSA was characterised by a lack of clarity, an over-emphasis on changes to structures and procedures, and staff resistance.Underpinning this was an inappropriate approach to change. In conclusion, the article argues that the main lessons of the PSAs privatisation are that, in such(prenominal) circumstances, there is a need to adopt an approach to change which balances the structural and cultural aspects of change, especially the need to appreciate and r espond to staff fears and concerns. Approaches to change management As Stickland (1998, p. 14) remarks F F Fthe fuss with perusing change is that it parades across galore(postnominal) subject domains under umerous guises, such as transformation, development, metamorphosis, transmutation, evolution, regeneration, innovation, revolution and transition to name and a few. Organisational change in the public sector 95 IJPSM 14,2 96 Especially over the last 20 years or so, as the pace and magnitude of organisational change appears to have accelerated, there has been a significant increase in the number of approaches to change management on offer (see Buchanan and Boddy, 1992 Buchanan and Storey, 1997 Burnes, 2000 Cummings and Worley, 1997 Dawson, 1994 Kanter et al. 1992 Pettigrew et al. , 1992 Senior, 1997 Stace and Dunphy, 1994 Stickland, 1998 Wilson, 1992). Nevertheless, most writers tend to fall into one of 2 broad camps those who support the mean approach to change and those who espouse the emerging approach. The Planned approach originated in the 1940s from the work of Kurt Lewin (Lewin, 1947). Subsequently, it was adopted by, and became the central focus of, the Organization Development (OD) movement (French and Bell, 1995).However, in the 1980s, as a result of increasing criticism of the Planned approach, the Emergent approach to change came to the fore. Its proponents argued that the Emergent approach was more suitable for the fighting(a) and unpredictable conditions faced by organisations in the late twentieth century. The following draftly examines, and attempts to put into perspective, both these approaches to change in order to prepare the ground for presenting and discussing the privatisation of the PSA.Planned change summary and criticisms Planned change is an iterative, cyclical, process involving diagnosis, action and evaluation, and promote action and evaluation. It is an approach which maintains that once change has taken place, it must be self-sustaining (i. e. safe from regression). The purpose of Planned change is to improve the effectiveness of the human side of the organisation by focusing on the performance of groups and teams. Central to Planned change is the stress placed on the collaborative nature of the hange effort the organisation, managers, recipients of change and change agents jointly diagnose the organisations problem and jointly plan and design the specific changes. Underpinning Planned change, and indeed the origins of the OD movement as a whole, is a strong humanist and democratic predilection and an emphasis on improving organisational effectiveness. The main criticisms levelled against the Planned approach to change are, as Burnes and Salauroo (1995) point out, as follows.First, Planned change was developed specifically for, and in response to, topdown, autocratic, rigid, rule-based organisations operating in a somewhat predictable and controlled environment. However, an increasing number of wr iters argue that, in the turbulent and chaotic world in which we live, such assumptions are increasingly tenuous and that organisational change is more a continuous and open-ended process than a set of discrete and self-contained events (Garvin, 1993 Hatch, 1997 Nonaka, 1988 Peters, 1989 Stacey, 1993 Wooten and White, 1999).Second, and on a exchangeable note, a number of writers have criticised the Planned approach for its emphasis on additive and isolated change, and its inability to incorporate radical, transformational change (Dunphy and Stace, 1993 Harris, 1985 Miller and Friesen, 1984 Schein, 1985). Third, Planned change is based on the assumption that common agreement can be reached, and that all the parties involved in a particular change project have a willingness and interest in doing so.This assumption appears to ignore organisational conflict and politics, or at least assumes that problem issues can be easily identify and resolved. However, as Pfeffer (1981 1992) showed , conflict and personal and group self-interest do play an essential role in what changes take place and who benefits from them. Fourth, it assumes that one type of approach to change is suitable for all organisations, all situations and all times. Dunphy and Stace (1993, p. 905), on the other hand, argue that Turbulent times demand different responses in varied circumstances.So managers and consultants need a model of change that is essentially a situational or contingency model, one that indicates how to vary change strategies to achieve optimum fit with the ever- changing environment. Organisational change in the public sector 97 Leading OD advocates, as might be expected, dispute these criticisms and point to the way that Planned change has tried to incorporate issues such as power and politics and the need for organisational transformation (Cummings and Worley, 1997 French and Bell, 1995).Nevertheless, as criticisms of the Planned approach mounted, supporters of the Emergent a pproach gained ground. Emergent change summary and criticisms There are many writers who have contri excepted to the development of the Emergent approach, notably Dawson (1994), Kanter et al. (1992), Kotter (1996), Pettigrew (1985) and Wilson (1992). Unlike the supporters of the Planned approach, the main proponents of the Emergent approach are a much more diverse group who are separated by both geographic and disciplinary divides. Nevertheless, they would, more or less, agree that the main tenets of Emergent change are as follows .Organisational change is a continuous process of experiment and adaptation aimed at matching an organisations capabilities to the needs and dictates of a dynamic and uncertain environment. . Though this is best achieved through a multitude of ( generally) small- to medium-scale incremental changes, over time these can lead to a major re-configuration and transformation of an organisation. . agitate is a multi-level, cross-organisation process that unfold s in an iterative and messy fashion over a boundary of years and comprises a series of interlocking projects. . Change is a political-social process and not an analytical-rational one. The role of managers is not to plan or implement change per se, shut up to create or foster an organisational structure and climate which encourages and sustains experimentation, development and risk-taking, and IJPSM 14,2 . 98 . to develop a workforce that will take responsibility for identifying the need for change and implementing it. Although managers are expected to become facilitators quite an than doers, they also have the prime responsibility for developing a collective vision or common purpose which gives direction to their organisation, and within which the appropriateness of any proposed change can be judged.The key organisational activities which allow these elements to operate successfully are information-gathering about the external environment and internal objectives and capabilit ies communication the transmission, analysis and discussion of information and acquirement the ability to develop new skills, identify appropriate responses and draw knowledge from their own and others past and present actions. Though not always stated explicitly, the case for an Emergent approach to change is based on the assumption that all organisations operate in a turbulent, dynamic and unpredictable environment.Therefore, if the external world is changing in a speedy and uncertain way, organisations need to be continuously scanning their environment in order to identify developments and respond appropriately. Though in the long run leading to organisational transformation, to be successful, it is argued, change needs to emerge locally and incrementally in order to respond to threats and opportunities thrown up by environmental instability. Because this is a continuous, open-ended and bottom-up process, the Planned approach to change is inappropriate.This leads to the scra tch of three major criticisms of the Emergent approach it is specifically founded on the assumption that all organisations operate in a dynamic environment which requires continuous transformation. It is, by its own definition, not applicable to organisations operating in constant environments where fine-tuning is the order of the day, or those whose circumstances require major changes through the use of fast and coercive measures.The second criticism relates to the difference between these devil approaches. The Planned approach is attacked because of its advocacy of Refreezing organisations after they have been changed (Kanter et al. , 1992). However, if one examines the process of change advocated by, for example, Dawson (1994), Kotter (1996) and Pettigrew et al. (1992), though they argue to the contrary, they do speak of change as a transition process which does have a beginning, center field and end. Indeed, as Hendry (1996, p. 24) comments Scratch any account of creating an d managing change and the musical theme that change is a threestage process which necessarily begins with a process of unfreezing will not be far below the surface. The final criticism concerns the emphasis that advocates of the Emergent approach place on the political and cultural aspects of change. Though undoubtedly politics and refining do play a role in the change process, a number of writers have begun to criticise what they regard as the overemphasis placed on these aspects of change. Hendry (1996, p. 21), for example, argues that The management of change has become F F F overfocused on the political aspects of change, whilst Collins (1998, p. 100), voicing concerns of his own and of other researchers, argues that F F F in reacting to the problems and critiques of the Planned approach, managers and practitioners have swung from a dependence on under-socialized models and explanations of change and instead have become committed to the arguments of, what might be called, over socialized models of change. Organisational change in the public sector 99Therefore, though it has apparent advantages over the Planned approach, or rather it is applicable to situations for which Planned change is not suitable, an examination of the Emergent approach reveals that it not free from serious criticism. Putting change into perspective In examining the Planned and Emergent approaches to change, what we can see is that they focus on different aspects of organisations and are applicable to different situations. The Planned approach is primarily aimed at improving group effectiveness, tends to have a top-down orientation and is most suitable for stable environments.The Emergent approach, on the other hand, tends to focus on organisational transformation through continuous change and seems more suited to turbulent environments. This means that, despite their other strengths and weaknesses, both are essentially situational approaches suitable only for particular situations. I n addition, it is also clear that, even taken together, the two approaches do not foil all the broad spectrum of change events which organisations encounter. Senior (1997), for example, rawing on the work of Grundy (1993), identifies three categories of change smooth incremental covering slow, systematic, evolutionary change bumpy incremental pertaining to periods where the smooth flow of change accelerates and discontinuous change. Cummings and Worley (1997) identify a continuum running from incremental change to quantum change. Dunphy and Stace (1992), in a similar but more detailed way, identify a four-stage change continuum that comprises fine-tuning, incremental adjustment, modular transformation and corporate transformation.Storey (1992) offers a four-fold typology of change (1) Top-down systemic change. This is aimed at transforming the organisation. (2) stepwise initiatives. These are devised and implemented by departments or sections in an unconnected fashion. (3) Barga ining for change. This is where a series of targets are jointly agreed between managers and workers, but are pursued in a piecemeal fashion. (4) Systemic jointism. This is where managers and workers agree a total package of changes designed to achieve organisational transformation.IJPSM 14,2 100 Kanter et al. (1992), addressing the issue of transformational change, have notable that it can be achieved either by a Bold Stroke approach (rapid overall change) or a Long March approach (incremental change leading to transformation over an extended period of time). In a similar vein, Beer and Nohria (2000) make an interesting contribution to the change debate. Based on over 40 years of studying the nature of corporate change, they identify two basic archetypes, or theories of change Theory E and Theory O.The main objective of Theory E change is to maximise shareholder value. It is applied in situations where an organisations performance has diminished to such an extent that its main shar eholders demand major and rapid change to improve the organisations financial performance. Typically this is a hard approach based on downsizing, divestment of non-core or low-performing businesses, and the heavy use of financial incentives. Theory O, on the other hand, is also aimed at improving an organisations performance but his is more a soft approach which is based on developing the organisations culture and its human capabilities, and promoting organisational learning. Beer and Nohria (2000) believe that both of these are valid models of change but that both have their flaws. Theory E can achieve short-term financial gains but at the cost of denuding an organisation of the human capabilities and organisational culture necessary for long-term survival. Theory O, whilst focusing on these, falls into the trap of not restructuring to concentrate on core activities, thus failing to deliver shareholder value.To achieve the gains of both these approaches, whilst avoiding the pitfall s, Beer and Nohria advocate using these in tandem by focusing on the rapid restructuring elements of Theory E but following this with the human capability development offered by Theory O. Although similar to Kanter et al. s (1992) Bold Strokes and Long March, this idea goes beyond most other writers by pointing out that it is possible and sometimes necessary to combine approaches to change, rather than arguing for some sort of universal approach.In reason this review of the literature on organisational change, three issues need to be emphasised, which are as follows (1) There are a wide variety of approaches to change, though some tend to be more popular than others. (2) As Burnes (1996) argues, there is no one best way to manage change. All the approaches on offer appear to be situational, i. e. restrain in terms of the circumstances in which they are effective. Therefore, managers need to choose an approach which is suitable for their situation rather than assuming that what wor ked in the past will also work in the early. 3) In some situations, it may be necessary to combine, either concurrently or sequentially, different approaches to change. Having identify the main issues with regard to the literature on change, we can now proceed to examine how the PSA managed change in practice. This will commence with a brief description of the background to our research, and the methods employed. Background and methods This article is based on research carried out between 1995 and 1998 by the authors into the process and consequences of the privatisation of the Property Services Agency.The research had two main objectives (1) To identify the reasons for, and the process of, the privatisation of the PSA. (2) Post-privatisation, to examine the impact of the new arrangements on relations between government departments and the newly-privatised PSA. As mentioned in the Introduction, this article is concerned with the first objective, the process of privatisation. For a review of the impact of privatisation on relations between government departments and the privatised PSA, see Burnes and Coram (1999).Looking at the design of the research and the methods used to study the changes at the PSA, the aim of the research was to construct a mainly qualitative case study of what took place. This was based on principles and methods of research advocated by writers such as Denzin and capital of Nebraska (1998), Robson (1993) and Yin (1994). Though documentary evidence was collected, such as press reports, extracts from parliamentary debates, internal PSA documents and the National analyze Office reports into the deal of the PSA (NAO, 1995 1996), the main source of data came from interviews with those most closely involved with the process.These fell into five groups (1) Senior civil servants within the responsible for managing and privatising the PSA. (2) Senior civil servants responsible for managing and procuring property and property services for govern ment departments. (3) Senior civil servants in the bodies responsible for advising departments on purchasing policy. (4) Directors and operational staff in the privatised companies, the majority of whom were former PSA employees. (5) The urbane Service trade unions involved in the privatisation negotiations.In total, some 50 individuals were interviewed. The interviews were taperecorded and transcripts sent to the interviewees for checking and correction. In addition, a draft of the final report of the research was sent to the interviewees for comment. These data formed the basis of the following description of the privatisation process. Organisational change in the public sector 101 IJPSM 14,2 102 The privatisation of the Property Services Agency (PSA) Background The origins of the PSA can be traced to 1962 when the Ministry of PublicBuildings and Works was do responsible for maintaining all the UK governments civil buildings. A year later, the Ministry was merged with the Works directorates of the Admiralty, War Office and Air Ministry. The conjugation increased the Ministrys workforce to over 60,000. With the creation of the Department of the Environment (DoE) in 1970, it was decided that the responsibility for construction and maintenance services should become the responsibility of a separate agency and thus the Property Services Agency was born.Its role was to F F F provide, manage, maintain, and furnish the property used by the government, including self-renunciation establishments, offices, courts, research laboratories, training centres and land (PSA, 1988, inside cover). In the 1960s and 1970s, few questioned whether or not such activities were best carried out by the public sector, but in the 1980s the tide of opinion began to turn (Crouch and Streeck, 1997). Claims of bureaucratic inefficiency and waste in the UK public services were nothing new (Chapman, 1978 Fulton, 1968 Plowden, 1961).However, what was new, with the election of Margaret Tha tcher as premier(a) Minister in 1979, was that tackling bloated, wasteful, overbureaucratic, and underperforming public services became the centrepiece of government policy (Ferlie et al. , 1996, p. 11). Subsequently, successive Conservative governments attempted to deliver better value for money in public services through measures such as privatisation, outsourcing and compulsory competitive tendering (Flynn, 1993 Horton, 1996).Not surprisingly, given its size and importance, but most of all given the fact that it seemed to be carrying out a role that in other sectors of the economy was carried out by the private sector, the PSA became a prime target for reform. The process of privatisation In retrospect, it is possible to see that the process of privatising the PSA went through six key stages and began well in advance of the actual announcement that it was to be privatised . Stage 1.In order to increase the commercial efficiency of the PSA, in 1986 the government appointed the co nsultancy firm Deloitte to develop and introduce new accounting and management information systems. These new systems were designed to allow the PSA to operate along private sector lines and to abandon public sector practices which were seen as uncommercial. . Stage 2. In 1987, it was announced that, from April 1988, civilian departments of government could take responsibility for commissioning their own construction projects with a value of over ? 150,000.The Ministry of Defence was allowed to follow suit in April 1990. In effect, . . . . this meant that the PSA was way out to have to bid alongside private sector companies for government work. Stage 3. In 1988, the Secretary of State for the Environment announced that the PSA would in future operate on a commercial basis. This is to say that its income, and indeed its survival, would depend on gaining work from government departments in the face of private sector competition. To accelerate this, the PSA was restructured into a nu mber of separate business functions.In addition, in order to promote a more commercial orientation, a Business Development Directorate was established within the PSA. The consultants Price Waterhouse were appointed to operate alongside the new Directorate to assist the PSAs commercial development by, among other things, training staff in business accounting, financial management, business planning, people management, customer care and marketing. Stage 4. In September 1989, the government announced that the PSA was to be privatised.In June 1990, the legislation necessary to enable this to take place was passed. Stage 5. In October 1990, in preparation for privatisation, the PSA was restructured into three main businesses PSA Projects, PSA Building Management (which was ultimately split into five separate companies), and PSA International (which, in the end, was closed down rather than sold). Stage 6. PSA Projects was privatised in 1992. This was followed in 1993 by the sale of the f ive companies which comprised PSA Building Management. Organisational change in the public sector 103The above presents the privatisation of the PSA as a relatively straightforward and well- think process. However, this is far from the humanity of what happened. First, it must be recognised that most of the above actions were imposed on the PSA rather than arising from the decisions of its own management. Second, the six stages focused very much on changes to structures and procedures whilst paying small-scale attention to the need for attitudinal, behavioural and cultural changes or, indeed, the reaction of the PSAs staff to the notion of privatisation.Finally, as the following will explain, the move to privatise the PSA was far slower and much messier than either the government or the PSAs management had allowed for. The pace of privatisation As the following quotation from a director of one of the privatised companies indicates, the privatisation of the PSA took longer, and was more difficult, than expected The privatisation process was a very lengthy process.It was much longer than it was originally intended to be and meant that the natural unease and nervousness that occurs during such periods was prolonged. IJPSM 14,2 104 The main reasons for this slowness were twofold. Lack of strategic direction. At first, the PSAs Board appeared to treat privatisation as a standard public sector change programme which could be planned in advance, executed in a straightforward way with few unforeseen problems, and which staff would accept, even if they did not like it. However, this proved to be far from the case.The PSAs Board brought in a firm of consultants to help them to clarify the PSAs strategic direction but, as this remark by PSAs then Deputy head word Executive demonstrates, the result seemed somewhat unfocused For example, we did a lot of work on objectives. I dont think I can remember what we boiled it down to in the end, F F F something like to preserve the maximum number of viable longterm mulls. Whatever the merits or not of the work the Board did, the inwardness and lower reaches of the PSA seemed more alarmed than consoled by developments.It was also the case that even where positive decisions were taken by the top, such as a load to provide retraining and outplacement support for staff, they found it difficult to put them into practice. One former PSA Director stated that There were a few things like that the training where I think the best intentions at the top were weakened by people underneath, and I didnt know why. The difficulties faced by top management in developing a new strategy for the PSA and in pushing forward the pace of privatisation were threefold.The first was that though, as civil servants, they had been brought up in a stable environment which operated by well-understood rules, they found themselves having to transform the organisation into a commercial entity that could be successful whilst not understan ding the nature of competition nor ever feeling in control of the pace of change. The second was that, having been used to running a bureaucratic organisation with compliant staff, they found themselves attempting to construct a more flexible and entrepreneurial body with an increasingly disgruntled and worried workforce.The last was that, their actions were being dictated and judged by their political masters, whose sole concern appeared to be to privatise the PSA as quickly as possible, no matter what it cost or who was offended. Therefore, senior managers found themselves caught between the politicians desire for speed and their staffs desire for job security, both of which clashed with their own cautious and ruledriven approach to change. Resistance by PSA employees. This was the second main reason for the slowness of the privatisation process.The majority of PSA employees did not pauperization their organisation privatised. Not only did they value the stability and certainty t hat working for a government body gave them, but also most believed that the PSA had little chance of survival in the private sector. As one of their trade union officials put it The implications of privatisation for staff, in respect of pensions, severance terms, general pay and conditions, were enormous. What happens if the organisation who took them over went bust at some later date?The result of this uncertainty and fear for their future was that staff sought to resist and delay privatisation. On an individual basis, many staff resisted by withholding information and decelerate down the process wherever possible. For example, some staff basically gave up work and devoted all their time to searching for another job, whilst others fabricated rumours. There was also a general increase in union militancy. On a collective basis, the PSA staff trade union decided to oppose the privatisation.As one union official commented F F F we felt and whitewash feel that if you are providing a service for the public sector and using taxpayers money, that its quite inappropriate to have this work carried out by organisations making a profit. Organisational change in the public sector 105 The official also went on to state that it was union policy to delay the privatisation F F F the idea was that the longer it took, the longer people were in the public sector.There were issues about information, about negotiation over what the implications of the sale would be for staff, and obviously, from that point of view, the idea of slowing the process down wasnt one that we were objecting to. Eventually this resistance became overt and staff took industrial action, including working to rule and strikes. In a belated attempt to withdraw staff opposition to privatisation, the government devised a staff choice scheme whereby PSA staff could choose to transfer fully to the privatised companies, to be seconded to them for a limited period, or to take early retirement.The staff choice sc heme also protected employees pension entitlements. Though this defused some of the opposition, it was not until after the 1992 General Election, when many people mistakenly as it turned out expected a change of government, that staff finally accepted the inevitability of privatisation. As can be seen, the PSAs privatisation was characterised overall by uncertainty, delay and a lack of any clear strategic direction (other than to privatise it). The entire process was driven by one unquestionable aim privatisation.The process, cost and consequences of privatisation were all subordinate, and, in some senses, irrelevant to achieving that one aim. Though clear in itself, the aim provided no guidance as to how it was to be achieved nor, importantly, did it offer any direction for what was to take place afterwards. As for the PSAs strategy, instead of clarity and purpose, what developed was a stream of unplanned, ad hoc and muddled decisions made in reaction to events, rather than in an ticipation of them.Discussion Though it is not the purpose of this article to evaluate the merits or otherwise of the decision to privatise the PSA, it is important to recognise that the wave of privatisation seen in the UK in the 1980s and 1990s was essentially based on a IJPSM 14,2 106 political belief that the private sector, driven by competitive pressures, was far better at delivering value-for-money services than the public sector (Crouch and Streeck, 1997 Ferlie et al. , 1996 Flynn, 1993).Consequently, the privatisation of the PSA, like other privatisations, was not driven by some form of rationaleconomic decision-making process, but by a political agenda aimed at transferring parts of the public sector to the private sector. Consequently, successive governments were less concerned with the process of change, or indeed its cost, than with ensuring that the transfer took place. It is not surprising, then, that the PSAs staff should have felt resentment and a sense of betrayal that, after many years of public service, their careers and livelihoods were threatened by what appeared to them to be ideological dogma.This put the senior managers of the PSA in a situation for which they were ill-prepared and had little experience. They had to plan for, and get staff to comply with, a trace for which they themselves seemed to have little sympathy and over which, in the final analysis, they felt they had little control. To achieve privatisation, they attempted to apply the sort of rational-planned approach to change which had worked for them when undertaking change in the past. But past changes had been undertaken within a relatively stable public sector environment, with a compliant workforce and with few probable losers.Unfortunately, the governments policy in this instance was driven by mainly ideology rather than rationality. It was designed to remove the PSA from the public sector, the workforce were afraid and hostile, rather than compliant, and there wer e a great number of potential losers. It was also the case that the senior echelons of the PSA appeared themselves to be apprehensive and lacking in support for the privatisation. Therefore, not surprisingly, senior managers found it difficult to devise and put their plans into practice when faced with an uncertain environment and a hostile staff.As time passed, three factors came to the fore which ensured that privatisation was realized (1) In order to achieve its objective of privatising the PSA, the government eventually recognised it would need to be pragmatic as to how this was achieved and its cost. (2) The PSA management abandoned its planned approach to change and, basically, adopted a reactive and ad hoc approach to overcoming the barriers to privatisation dealing with them as they arose and being prepared to be flexible in most aspects of the process. 3) After the 1992 General Election produced no change of government or policy, it became clear to staff that the privatis ation of the PSA was inevitable. As can be seen, in terms of strategic change, this was an instance where there was a clear, though limited, objective, but no clear or consistent strategy for achieving it. It is highly debatable whether or not the privatisation of the PSA has produced any measurable benefits to the UK taxpayer. Certainly the governments own National Audit Commission (NAO, 1995 1996) was critical of the cost and process of the PSAs privatisation.Also, whilst most organisations in the private sector appear convinced that closer, less hostile and longer-term working relationships between customers and suppliers are the way to achieve best value for money, this does not seem to be the case in terms of the public sectors relations with the privatised PSA or other companies in the construction industry (Burnes and Coram, 1999). As far as change management was concerned, what we can see is that the PSAs managers attempted to apply the sort of quick, top-down, mechanistic a pproach to change which had previously worked well in the relatively stable world of the public sector.However, the PSA was moving into unknown territory, the private sector, which was far more dynamic and unpredictable than it was used to. Also, it needed to achieve two forms of change at the equal time changes to structures, practices and procedures and changes to attitudes, behaviour and culture. Whilst the traditional top-down public sector approach might be suitable to the former, provided the environment was relatively stable, it was not suitable to the latter, irrespective of the nature of the environment.This meant that the PSAs leaders were attempting to take their staff into unknown territory, using an inappropriate approach and in a direction with which even they were apparently ill at ease. Conclusions As the literature review argued, there is no one best way to manage change. Just because an approach was deemed appropriate and worked over a period of time does not mean it will work in all situations or for all time (Burnes, 1996). A top-down, planned approach may well be suitable for a stable, public sector bureaucracy, but if a need arises to move the same bureaucracy into the private sector, the same approach is improbable to work.As Dunphy and Stace (1993, p. 905) remarked Turbulent times demand different responses F F F Although the privatisation of the PSA is now a past event, the nature of the public sector and whether further elements of it should be privatised, or required to become more market-orientated, still form part of the current political agenda in most countries. Consequently, the lessons of the PSAs privatisation are still very relevant to those who make public policy and to those charged with carrying out the changes which such policies require of them. The main lessons are as follows.First, to prepare services for privatisation, or to operate on a more commercial basis, requires both structural and cultural change. As Allaire and Firsirotu (1984) showed, to achieve both requires different approaches with different timescales. A similar point was made by Beer and Nohria (2000), cited earlier, who call for a combination of Theory E and Theory O approaches to achieve such transformations. To focus on only one of these, as was the case with the PSA, is unlikely to achieve the benefits which policy makers expect, and taxpayers increasingly demand. Organisational change in the public sector 107IJPSM 14,2 108 Second, there is a need to win over staff, or at the very least to address their concerns and fears. A key element in this is the need for policy makers to move beyond basing their decisions mainly on dogma or political creed, and instead, as OToole and Jordan (1995, p. 190) recommend, to base them upon a rigorous identification of weaknesses and a considered plan to remedy those defects. As far as the PSA case was concerned, there was never really any attempt to win over staff or, until quite late in the process, to address their fears and concerns.The main reason for this was that the PSAs senior managers did not know how to promote a decision based on dogma, one which they had played no part in developing, and over whose consequences they had significant reservations. Third, it should also be noted that the PSAs management themselves did not possess the skills or experience to manage such a change process. Although this was recognised by the provision of consultants to help with the more structural and technical changes, support for the more cultural aspects appears to have been ignored.Therefore, in conclusion, as can be seen, the PSAs privatisation was flawed and, some might consider, ill-conceived in the first place. However, this should not blind us to the important lessons it offers both policy makers and practitioners when considering and managing organisational changes in the public sector. Policy makers rightly require and expect public sector employees to provide value f or money. In turn, public sector employees have a right to expect policy makers to take decisions, and manage the consequences which flow from these, in such a way that it can be openly seen that value for money is their primary concern.References Allaire, Y. and Firsirotu, M. E. (1984), Theories of organizational culture, Organization Studies, Vol. 5 No. 3, pp. 193-226. Beer, M. and Nohria, N. (2000), Cracking the code of change, Harvard Business Review, May/June, pp. 133-41. Brindle, D. (1999), Pensions computer upgrade hit by 1,900 bugs as deadline looms, The Guardian, 26 January, p. 3. Buchanan, D. A. and Boddy, D. (1992), The Expertise of the Change Agent, Prentice-Hall, London. Buchanan, D. A. and Storey, J. (1997), Role-taking and role-switching in organizational change the four pluralities, in McLoughlin, I. and Harris, M. Eds), Innovation, Organizational Change and Technology, International Thompson, London. Burnes, B. (1996), No such thing as a one best way to manage organ isational change, Management Decision, Vol. 34 No. 10, pp. 11-18. Burnes, B. (2000), Managing Change, 3rd ed. , Prentice-Hall, Harlow. Burnes, B. and Coram, R. (1999), Barriers to partnership in the public sector the case of the UK construction industry, Supply Chain Management, Vol. 4 No. 1, pp. 43-50. Burnes, B. and Salauroo, M. (1995), The impact of new customer-supplier relationships on mergers within the NHS, Journal of Management in Medicine, Vol. No. 2, pp. 14-29. Chapman, L. (1978), Your Disobedient Servant, Chatto & Windus, London. Collins, D. (1998), Organizational Change, Routledge, London. Crouch, C. and Streeck, W. (Eds) (1997), Political Economy of Modern Capitalism, Sage, London. Cummings, T. G. and Worley, C. G. (1997), Organization Development and Change, 6th ed. , South-Western College Publishing, Cincinnati, OH. Dawson, P. (1994), Organizational Change A Processual Approach, Paul Chapman Publishing, London. Denzin, N. K. and Lincoln, Y. S. (Eds) (1998), Strategies for Qualitative Enquiry, Sage, London. Dunphy, D. D. and Stace, D. A. 1992), Under New Management Australian Organizations in Transition, McGraw-Hill, Roseville. Dunphy, D. D. and Stace, D. A. (1993), The strategic management of corporate change, homosexual Relations, Vol. 46 No. 8, pp. 905-18. Ferlie, E. , Ashburner, L. , Fitzgerald, L. and Pettigrew, A. (1996), The New Public Sector in Action, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Flynn, N. (1993), Public Sector Management, Harvester-Wheatsheaf, London. Flynn, R. and Williams, G. (Eds) (1997), Contracting for Health, OUP, Oxford. French, W. L. and Bell, C. H. (1995), Organization Development, 5th ed. , Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.Fulton, The Lord (1968), The Civil Service Report of the Committee, Cmnd 3638, HMSO, London. Garvin, D. A. (1993), Building a learning organization, Harvard Business Review, July/August, pp. 78-91. Grundy, T. (1993), Managing Strategic Change, Kogan Page, London. Harris, P. R. (1985), Management in T ransition, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA. Hatch, M. J. (1997), Organization Theory Modern, Symbolic and Postmodern Perspectives, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Hendry, C. (1996), misgiving and creating whole organizational change through learning theory, Human Relations, Vol. 48 No. 5, pp. 621-41. Horton, S. 1996), The Civil Service, in Farnham, D. and Horton, S. (Eds), Managing the New Public Services, second ed. , Macmillan, Basingstoke. Kanter, R. M. , Stein, B. A. and Jick, T. D. (1992), The Challenge of Organizational Change, Free Press, New York, NY. Kotter, J. P. (1996), Leading Change, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA. Lewin, K. (1947), Frontiers in group dynamics, in Cartwright, D. (Ed. ) (1952), Field Theory in social Science, Social Science Paperbacks, London. Mabey, C. and Mayon-White, B. (1993), Managing Change, 2nd ed. , The Open University/ Paul Chapman Publishing, London. Miller, D. and Friesen, P.H. (1984), Organizations A Quantum View, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ. NAO (1995), Interim Report PSA Services, The Sale of PSA Projects, Report by the National Audit Office, HMSO, London. NAO (1996), PSA Service The Transfer of PSA Building Management to the Private Sector, Report by the National Audit Office, HMSO, London. Nonaka, I. (1988), Creating organizational order out of nuthouse self-renewal in Japanese firms, Harvard Business Review, November-December, pp. 96-104. OToole, B. J. and Jordan, G. (Eds) (1995), Next Steps Improving Management in Government, Dartmouth, Aldershot. Peters, T. 1989), Thriving on Chaos, Pan, London. Pettigrew, A. M. (1985), The Awakening Giant Continuity and Change at ICI, Blackwell, Oxford. Organisational change in the public sector 109 IJPSM 14,2 110 Pettigrew, A. M. , Ferlie, E. and McKee, L. (1992), Shaping Strategic Change, Sage, London. Pfeffer, J. (1981), Power in Organizations, Pitman, Cambridge, MA. Pfeffer, J. (1992), Managing with Power Politics and Influence in Organizations, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA. Plowdon, The Lord (1961), Control of Public Expenditure, Cmnd 1432, HMSO, London. PSA (1988), PSA Annual Report 1987-88, HMSO, London. Robson, C. 1993), Real World Research, Blackwell, Oxford. Salauroo, M. and Burnes, B. (1998), The impact of a market system on the public sector a study of organisational change in the NHS, The International Journal of Public Sector Management, Vol. 11 No. 6, pp. 451-67. Schein, E. H. (1985), Organizational Culture and Leadership A Dynamic View, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA. Senior, B. (1997), Organisational Change, Pitman, London. Smith, S. (Ed. ) (1997), Create That Change , Kogan Page, London. Stace, D. A. and Dunphy, D. D. (1994), Beyond the Boundaries Leading and Re-creating the Successful Enterprise, McGraw-Hill, Sydney.Stacey, R. (1993), Strategic Management and Organisational Dynamics, Pitman, London. Stickland, F. (1998), The Dynamics of Change Insights into Organisational Transition from the Natural Wor ld, Routledge, London. Storey, J. (1992), Developments in the Management of Human Resources, Blackwell, Oxford. Wilson, D. C. (1992), A Strategy of Change, Routledge, London. Wooten, K. C. and White, L. P. (1999), Linking ODs philosophy with justice theory postmodern implications, Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 12 No. 1, pp. 7-20. Yin, R. K. (1994), Case Study Research role and Methods, Sage, London.

M.A. English 4th Sem

The Guide fleck summary Railway Raju (nick reachd) is a disarmingly hunched escape who f anys in tell apart with a sightly dancer, Rosie, the neglected wife of archaeologistMarco . Marco doesnt approve of Rosies passion for bound. Rosie, encouraged by Raju, decides to follow her dreams and start a dancing rush. They start living together and Rajus mother, as she does non approve of their relationship, leaves them. Raju be catchs Rosies stage hu human beingsnessager and soon with the help of Rajusmarketingtactics, Rosie be adopts a successful dancer.Raju, however, develops an lofty sense of self-importance and tries to control her. Raju gets involved in a contingency offorgeryand gets a cardinal family sentence. After completing the sentence, Raju passes through a village where he is mistaken for asadhu(a ghostly guide). Reluctantly, as he does non want to re swordplay in disgrace toMalgudi, he rest in an aband geniusd temple. on that point is afaminein the village and Raju is expected to keep afastin order to clear it rainfall. With media publicise his fast, a huge crowd gathers ( oft to Rajus resent custodyt) to watch him fast.After fasting for several old age, he goes to the riverside one morning as de percent of his daily ritual, where his legs sag tear as he feels that the rain is falling in the hills. The ending of the novel leaves unanswered the question of whether he did, or whether thedroughthas certainly ended. The last commercial enterprise of the novel is Raju state Velan, its raining up the hills, I sewer feel it under my feet. And with this he saged d induce. The last line implies that by now Raju after undergoing so many ups and downs in his conduct has become a sage and as the drought ends Rajus life also ends.Narayan has splendidly written the last line which marrow squash and soul Raju did non die except saged down, meaning Raju within himself had become a sage. Character of Rosie Rosie is one of the main character s in the novel. She is presented in the novel as a beautiful dancer, of theDevadasi casing oftemple dancers, and the wife of Marco. Her marriage is comparable a curse in disguise to her as Marco is totally engrossed in his c atomic number 18r and is totally apathetic and unemotional to her. She is genuinely passionate to the highest degree dancing but her conserve does non allow her to dance.She tries to persuade her husband and bears all the insults by him provided for the sake of getting his permission to dance. When she is left inMalgudiby Marco to live with Raju, she devotes herself completely to dancing. She wakes early in the morning and practices hard for three hours everyday. She is evermore dullard to talk close to dance and even tries to teach Raju some of it. She is religious and believes in matinee idoldessSaraswatiand has abronze statueofNataraja, which is an image ofShivaas thecosmicLord ofDance, in her office. She does not believe in discriminatingbetween people on the basis of their financial status.When Raju meets rich and influential people, Rosie does not wait to cargon much about them. Being herself an artist, she respects the arts and likes to be in the company of artists and other music lovers. Her success does not get to her breaker point even after becoming a very successful professional dancer. Raju becomes upset when Rosie spends a lot of time with different artists rather than with him. He tells her that these artists come to her beca drop they are inferior to her and she replies that she is tired of all these talks of superior and inferior and does not believe in any of these.She is also portrayed as a traditional Indian wife. Her husband is like God to her. Marco calls her dancing skills as streetacrobaticsand compares it tomonkeydance. Despite all these insults she continues to be his wife. When Marco comes to know about the intimacy between her and Raju he gets very upset and doesnt talk to her and completely ignore s her presence. She apologizes to him and keeps on following him like a dog hoping that his oral sex would dislodge one day but that does not happen. This incident shows her tre manpowerdous tolerance power and her optimistic attitude.Even after she becomes very successful in her career and independent of her husband Marco she still has his photograph which conveys that she still considered Marco to be her husband and highlights her traditional Indian wife kind of character. However, she is often referred as The Serpent girl by Rajus mother, because his mother thinks that she was responsible for(p) for the ruined condition of her family and her son. Raju also seems to dislike her at the end of the story and holds her as the culprit. Rosie was also disliked by Rajus friends, Gaffur and Sait due to her intimacy with Raju.What is the summary of the unused The Guide written By R. K. Narayan? Answer- Raju is a railway guide who becomes obsessed with Rosie, a neglected wife of an arch eologist Marco. Rosie has a passion for dancing which Marco doesnt approve of. Rosie, encouraged by Raju, decides to follow her dreams and walks out on her husband. Raju becomes her stage manager and soon with the help of Rajus marketing tactics, Rosie becomes a successful dancer. By big flavoured Rosie the opportunity to dance, Raju is also giving her freedom, freedom which Marco has suppressed by refusing to let her dance.Raju, however, develops an inflated sense of self-importance and tries to control Rosie. But a man should not live off a womanhood. On the other hand, what if she is successful alone because of that man? The relationship between Raju and Rosie is strained. Marco reappears and Raju inadvertently gets involved in a case of forgery and gets a two stratum sentence. After completing the sentence, Raju is passing through a village when he is mistaken for a sadhu (a spiritual guru). Being reluctant to return in disgrace to Malgudi, he decides to play the part of the swami and makes the village temple his home.There is a famine in the village and Swami Raju, like the sadhu in one of his stories that he used to narrate to the villagers, is expected to keep a fast to get the rains. And he does go on a fast. Despite grave danger to his health, he continues to fast until he collapses. Can on that point be any connection between one mans hunger and the rains? Is there someone up there and does he listen to you? He is undergoing a spiritual transformation and the place has become a shrine. Will it rain? Well, the villagers fuck off faith in him and he has faith in their faith.Despite grave danger to his health, he continues to fast until he collapses. His legs sag down as he feels that the rain is falling in the hills. The ending of the novel leaves unanswered the question of whether he dies, or whether the drought has really ended. The English Teacher The English Teacheris a 1945 novel written byR. K. Narayan. This is the third and final part in the series, preceded bySwami and Friends(1935) andThe Bachelor of Arts(1937). This novel, dedicated to Narayans wife Rajam is not sole(prenominal)autobiographicalbut also poignant in its intensity of feeling.The story is a series of experiences in the life of Krishna, an English teacher, and his quest towards achieving inner peace and self-development. Plot As an English teacher at Albert Mission College, Krishna has guide a mundane and monotonous lifestyle comparable to that of a cow, but this took a turn when his wife, Susila, and their child, Leela, come to live with him. With their welfare on his hands, Krishna learns to be a proper husband and learns how to accept the responsibility of taking care of his family.He felt that his life had relatively improved, as he understood that theres more meaning to life than to just teaching in the college. However, on the day when they went in search of a radical house, Susila contracts typhoid after visiting a dirty lavatory, keepin g her in bed for weeks. Throughout the integral course of her illness, Krishna constantly tries to keep an optimistic fancy about Susilas illness, keeping his hopes up by thinking that her illness would soon be cured. However, Susila eventually succumbs and passes away.Krishna, destroyed by her loss, has suicidal thoughts but gives them up for the sake of his daughter, Leela. He leads his life as a lost and miserable person after her death, but after he receives a letter from a fantastical who indicates that Susila has been in contact with him and that she wants to communicate with Krishna, he becomes more collected and cheerful. This leads to Krishnas journey in search of enlightenment, with the stranger acting as a metier to Susila in the spiritual world.Leela, on the other hand, goes to a preschool where Krishna gets to meet the Headmaster, a profound man who cared for the disciples in his school and teaches them moral values through his own methods. The Headmaster puts his students as his top priority but he doesnt care for his own family and children, eventually leaving them on the day predicted by an astrologist as to be when he was going to die, which did not come true. Krishna gets to learn through the Headmaster on the journey to enlightenment eventually learning to ommunicate to Susila on his own, thus concluding the entire story itself, with the quote that he felt a moment of rare immutable joy. PLOT Krishna, is spending his get hitched with days in a College hostel, living like cattle, far from marital bliss until one afternoon he receives a letter from his father wishing him to gentle a home in Malgudi with his wife and child. What follows next is a series of light hearted chatter about Krishna adapting to the domestic responsibility which convert him into a man (from cattle ). One day, when Krishna and Susila go out to look for a house, Susila falls ill and dies after a spell of typhoid.Krishnas life is deserted, but he has to keep solace in his bundle of joy, Leela, his daughter. In the next few months he learns and executes household chores, takes charge of child and goes out to college until one day he receives a letter from his wife Susila Krishna embarks on a journey to attain nirvana to bridge with the spirit of his wife Susila, as per her wish in the letter and future correspondences. Parallel to this the child has grown up enough and starts attending school. The school Headmaster is a man of strong will and has dedicated his unharmed life for the education of small children.His philosophy attracts Krishna and its the incidents in Schoolmasters life which help Krishna turn around and attain Nirvana, which he had been laborious to achieve since long time. Finally, the child is sent to the grandparents and Krishna resigns from his job as the English teacher. He takes up rub down in kindergarten and succeeds in uniting with his soul chum. How? Find out Apart from Krishna, Susila and Leela, another significan t character is Leelas schoolmaster. He is a revolutionary educationist who wants his pupils to be happy in life.His wife doesnt respect him and discard his principles and his children live miserably due to this domestic discord. One day, he decides to leave his family for good to fulfill his dream. Its his way of life which helps Krishna in his journey. The high pointstwice while reading this otherwise effortless handwriting, comes two small accounts which are treat for your literary buds. First, the depiction where Susila has died and Krishna is sitting all darkness alongside her clay and then next day the journey to cremation ground and back is presented in a counterbalance class fib, profoundly touching and flamboyant.Itsnoticeablethat RKN was capable of composing ornate literature but chose to be sincere for good. Secondly, in the last chapter, the narrative is dynamic, starting signal with the farewell party scene in college where his colleagues and students are biding Krishna bye bye, and second when he reaches home and is into the state of peace at last. The supernatural plotin the story is well constituted and angelic. It doesnt look forced because it is well justified and aesthetic. The happenings in Krishnas life play important design in his journey from a father learner to a successful master of this science.Its a joy to read through his experiences which make him a better human being. To simply put, autobiographyis ordinary but nonetheless ecstatic. The characters are well sculptured and blend in the story smoothly. It is as lucid for a fifth standard student to comprehend but as intricate for an adult to conclude. Anotherdelightis that the size of the book is just apt. Only 184 pages make it a fast, easy and sweet read with no frills & no insignificant blah blah. Untouchable This article is about the Mulk Raj Anand novel. For the John Banville novel, seeThe Untouchable (novel).Untouchableis anovelbyMulk Raj Anand print in 1935. The nov el established Anand as one of Indias leadingEnglishauthors. 1The book was inspired by his aunts experience when she had a meal with a Muslim person and was treated as an outcast by his family. 2The plot of this book, Anands first, revolves around the argument for eradicating thecaste system. 3It depicts a day in the life of Bakha, a unfledged sweeper, who is untouchable due to his work cleaning latrines. Plot Untouchable is the story of a single day in the life of 18 year olduntouchableboy named Bakha, who lives in pre-independence India.Bakha is described as strong and able-bodied, full of enthusiasm and dreams varying from to dressing like a Tommie (Englishmen) in fashun to playinghockey. However, his limited heart and the fact that he belongs to the lowest caste even amongst untouchables, forces him to beg for food, to often face humiliation, and to be at the mercy of the whims of other, high caste, Hindus. The day described in the story is a difficult one for Bakha. over th e course of the day, he is slapped in public for polluting an upper caste Hindu through an accidental touch and has food impel at him by another person after he cleans her gutters.His sister is molested by a priest, he is blamed for an injury authentic by a young boy following a melee after a hockey match, and he is thrown out of his house by his father. In the story, Mulk Raj Anand presents two choices, or ways in which Bakha in particular and untouchables in general can be change state from the life they are born into. The first choice is that of Christianity, a religion that does not recognize the caste system. The second comes from the teachings of Gandhi who calls for the freeing of Harijans. PrefaceAfter the very long era of time, I am here to present my exposition of an English Poem The Queens Rival composed by Sarojini Naidu who was a celebrated woman of letters of her times as the coarse poetess and was also honored with the title of The Nightingale of India. The theme of the rime in exposition is based on a tale from a book Arabian Nights. The original author of the book is unknown, but it is translated in many languages of the world. The book with the title as New Arabian Nights in English was translated by Robert Louis Stevenson. Andrew Lang also had written the same book in English.In Gujarati also, we can have the said book under the Title Arbastaan-ni- Vaato. Over the centuries, the innumerable editions of the Arabian Nights have been published. The original text of the poem in three parts is as follows The poem is taken from The Golden Threshold, the first volume of verse published in 1905 by Sarojini Naidu. The Queens Rival I QUEEN GULNAAR sit down on her ivory bed, Around her countless treasures were spread Her chamber walls were richly inlaid With agate, porphyry, onyx and jade The tissues that veiled her delicate breast, Glowed with the hues of a lapwings capBut still she gazed in her reflect and sighed O tabby, my heart is uns atisfied. King Feroz bent from his ebony seat Is thy least desire unfulfilled, O Sweet? Let thy mouth speak and my life be spent To clear the hawk of thy discontent. I tire of my sweetie, I tire of this Empty splendour and shadow-less bliss With none to envy and none gainsay, No zestfulness or salt hath my dream or day. Queen Gulnaar sighed like a murmuring lift wine Give me a match, O King Feroz. II King Feroz spoke to his Chief Vizier Lo ere to-morrows dawn be here, Send forth my messengers over the sea,To seek seven beautiful brides for me Radiant of feature and regal of mien, vii handmaids meet for the Persian Queen. Seven new moon tides at the Vesper call, King Feroz led to Queen Gulnaars hall A young baron eyed like the morning star I bring thee a rival, O Queen Gulnaar. But still she gazed in her mirror and sighed O King, my heart is unsatisfied. Seven queens shone round her ivory bed, Like seven soft gems on a silken thread, Like seven fair lamps in a royal t ower, Like seven bright petals of Beautys flower Queen Gulnaar sighed like a murmuring rose Where is my rival, O King Feroz? trine When spring winds wakened the mountain floods, And kindled the flame of the tulip buds, When bees grew loud and the days grew long, And the peach groves thrilled to the orioles song, Queen Gulnaar sat on her ivory bed, Decking with jewels her nice head And still she gazed in her mirror and sighed O King, my heart is unsatisfied. Queen Gulnsars daughter two spring times old, In blue robes surround with tassels of gold, Ran to her knee like a wildwood fay, And plucked from her hand the mirror away. chop-chop she set on her own light curls Her mothers fillet with fringes of pearlsQuickly she turned with a childs caprice And pressed on the mirror a swift, glad kiss. Queen Gulnaar laughed like a tremulous rose Here is my rival, O King Feroz. -Sarojini Naidu Synopsis of the poem Feroz is the king of Persia. Gulnaar is his queen. In spite of the pompous pa lace life, the queen is not satisfied at heart. though she is beautiful, she is longing for her rival. Sighing like a murmuring rose, she asks the king to give a rival to her who can compete with her beauty. On demand of Gulnaar, the king marries seven beautiful brides and asks them to live with Gulnaar as her maid-servants.The seven queens were divinatory to be Gulnaars rivals, but she continues to gaze in her mirror saying all the times that her heart was not satisfied with all those so called rivals. After some years, the queen Gulnaar gives wear to a baby-girl. When the princess becomes two years old, she runs to her knees to the Queen and snatches the mirror away from her hand. thence she wears her mothers hair-band around her head and presses her swift kiss on mirror. This very innocent gesture of the child makes Gulnaar laugh like a rose trembling on a plant with soft wind.She exclaims with joy, Here is my rival, O King Feroz. Exposition When we go through the poem under d iscussion, we do come to the concluding outcome of our study that Sarojini Naidu was really a natural, proficient and born poetess of her times. The narrations of Gulnaars bed, her chamber and her fabric are such attractive with flower of idiom that we would like to read those stanzas again and again in spite of the use of difficult words for various gems. The colorful muslin covering her delicate chest is compared with the crest of a bird named lapwing.But, in spite of her happiness, she gazed in her mirror and sighed saying, O King, my heart is unsatisfied. While proceeding further, we come across the romantic dialogues spoken by both King Feroz and Queen. Gulnaar as below Is thy least desire unfulfilled, O Sweet? Let thy mouth speak and my life be spent. To clear the sky of thy discontent said the King. The Queen said, I tire of my beauty, I tire of this, Empty splendor and shadow-less bliss With none to envy and none gainsay (rejoin), and love (taste) or salt hath my dream o r day. Queen Gulnaar sighed and said, Give me a rival, King Feroz.King Feroz ordered to his chief Vizier to send messengers over the sea to look for seven beautiful brides. The King said that the brides should be of glowing beauty and be appointed to be in attendance to the Queen. They all stood with such stunning beauty that they looked like a necklace of seven gems of attractive colors on a silken thread. In other words to say, the queens looked like seven beautiful lamps in a royal tower and seven bright petals of a well-nigh beautiful flower. Yet, Queen Gulnaar sighed and expressed her dissatisfaction saying, King Feroz, where is my rival? Against this background, Queen Gulnaar sat on her ivory bed adorning her delicate hair with precious jewels. She gazed in the mirror and sighed, O King, my heart is still dissatisfied. Prior to the concluding part of the poem, the poetess highlights a delicate psychological point that any power, prosperity or beauty if vested in one person b ecomes the cause of dissatisfaction at long. Rivalry in any field or aspect of life is the most essential factor for mental happiness and satisfaction. Monopoly, at long last, becomes like boredom. Human melodic theme always longs for competition. It is the human nature that wishes that the fficiency, richness, strength, capability or beauty should be challenged by somebody. One should have opportunity of being tested ones own worthiness of merits. Here, the Queen Gulnaar is unhappy in absence of any rival in case of her beauty. She was not satisfied with the rivalry of seven queens. When the poem seems advancing to its end, a turning point arises all of a sudden. Gulnaar is then lucky enough to have a powerful competitor. Her competitor is nobody else but her two years old daughter herself. One day, Queen Gulnaars two year old daughter was adorned with precious dress.The child, like a fairy in a forest, rushed to the Queen and snatched the mirror away from her hand.. Then the chil d quickly wore her mothers hair-band. Suddenly, with a child-like move, she planted merrily a kiss on the mirror. Queen Gulnaar laughed like a quivering rose, saying, O King Feroz, look, here is my rival. Summing up, Gulnaar realized that her daughter was the real rival of hers. Then the poem dramatically ends with the reality of life that the parents are always happy when they see their young ones playing and doing various innocent actions and tricks around them.The poetess has successfully presented the psychological point of mothering and motherhood through these sonnet-like three parts of the poem. The intellects Prayer In childhoods pride I said to TheeO yard, who madst me of Thy breath, Speak, Master, and reveal to meThine inmost laws of life and death. Give me to drink each joy and painful sensationWhich Thine eternal hand can mete, For my insatiate soul would beetle offEarths utmost bitter, utmost sweet. Spare me no bliss, no pang of strife,Withhold no gift or grief I c rave, The intricate lore of love and lifeAnd undercover noesis of the grave. Lord, Thou didst answer stern and lowChild, I will hearken to thy prayer, And thy unconquered soul shall knowAll passionate rapture and despair. Thou shalt drink thickheaded of joy and fame,And love shall burn thee like a fire, And pain shall cleanse thee like a flame,To purge the dross from thy desire. So shall thy chastened spirit yearnTo seek from its cover prayer release, And spent and pardoned, sue to learnThe simple secret of My peace. I, bending from my sevenfold height,Will teach thee of My quickening grace, Life is a prism of My light,And Death the shadow of My face. The Souls Prayer by Sarojini Naidu Summary and ExplanationWhat a beautiful prayer. Sarojini Naidu understands that both good and bad liaisons in life are necessary for a able completion of one souls agenda. First the question Everything is perfect exactly as it is. We cant see the other side because we are not there but we know that within the frame of time we will get there and be able to see the whole of the mosaic image. At the moment certain things dont make sense but that doesnt deter Naidu to accept life as it is with the bitter and the sweet. This shows great understanding of how the soul uses the body and the body-brain as mere tools to develop spiritually.The spiritually dip will want to reject the painful parts of life, failing to create mentally that the except way the soul can be cleansed of residue or simple unorganized illusory perceptions is to have the calling of pain. Pains serve two important purposes when knocking at the door they grant vision to our spiritual as the physical ones can scarcely see the wound and the wound doesnt always present itself when a crack in the thought system needs to be sealed (cleansed). The second purpose of the pain calling is to remind us, each and every time, that our unretentive plans and designs wont heal the root of the problem.In a chaotic world God isneeded at the root the blur surpassing any logic within our human limited comprehension of the workings of Truth and Knowledge. We have been made of Gods breath, so our very essence goes further than resembling His. We are his breath and like it, when it is expired (exhalation) we experience human life as it presents itself now when inspired (inhalation) we make an attempt to go back home through the death of the body. Each breath represents a state in our being, death the beginning of our spiritual life, birth the end of it.Human birth and death imply a simple reversal spiritual death and birth. The never-ending moment and movement of inspiration and expiration are very much stated in the wordsof the song The Windmills of your Mind Round, like a circle in a spiralLike a wheel within a wheel. neer ending or beginning,On an ever spinning wheel Sarojini writes this poem with the voice of a child and it is impressive to see someone so eager to go back to God (to wake up). By as king God to withhold nothing (Withhold no gift or grief I crave) she is delighted because the soul might not have to come back to deal with vagabond issues.The knowledge of the grave is mystic (And mystic knowledge of the grave) because we simply dont know. What happens at the grave goes beyond our ordinary senses we cant experience it while in this body. Neither do we remember how it was nor what it was before human birth, something needed if we are to work on our toxic character defects with a full blown amount of fairness. Purity doesnt come at a low price we mustiness endure the difficulties we chose for this life as souls and live with the consequences of our choices and actions choices and actions that define us as we go along.Then God answers God grants Sarojini her wish, and this is interesting because it is what differentiates the boys from the men. The boys cry because God brings suffering to the world. The men understand that suffering is only part of the game. Life is just another genre of the go around or Cosmic Wheel. This particular version of us is played out with drama as well as through time intervals, obvious record book techniques needed for our development as central characters. For the arch to take place, ups and downs are necessary.A good shaping of this arch determined by our behavior will make the play more or less dynamic but that doesnt take away the overall theme spiritual growth expanding into an inevitable awakening. Thou shalt drink deep of joy and fame,And love shall burn thee like a fire, And pain shall cleanse thee like a flame,To purge the dross from thy desire. These are part of the inevitabilities required for the awakening. First we need to go through the experience ofdesiringjoy, fame, love. The problems are not in these very things (joy, fame, love), but in the desire we feel for them.Desire pushes us into manipulation, which comes at the price of expectation, which ends in resentment when outcomes are not met. The l ine fails to be linear and the ups and downs manifesting from our erroneous perception carry pain along the way. Desire, then, is not desirable. It always implies suffering as well as other dirty little tricks like judgment and punishment. We might have to go through the pain many, many lives. But eventually the lesson is learned pain cleanses us like a flame, purging the dross from our desire. The Spirits yearn, a desire cry, comes not from us but from God HimselfGod cries for us, His children, begging us to come home. The release is a call to the waking up that takes place when blind prayer turns into a sighted realizationwe never actually needed to learn through pain, and there was never anything to fear. Mystic mystery is a simple secret, nothing more. Its Gods peace. The last verse discloses a loving God a God that bends with care to teach His children that where the cheerfulness has never shone there is also light, His light. Shadow and Light are just like birth and death, like night and day, like inhaling and exhaling. Pain and joy are just part of the windmills of your mind.And the Mind deep and calm in its Real state when filtered through the body is just a memory of something else. Biography of Kamala hyrax Kamala Surayya / Suraiyya formerly known as Kamala Das , (also known as Kamala Madhavikutty, pen name was Madhavikutty) was a major Indian English poet and litterateur and at the same time a leading Malayalam author from Kerala, India. Her popularity in Kerala is based chiefly on her short stories and autobiography, while her oeuvre in English, written under the name Kamala Das, is noted for the fiery poems and explicit autobiography.Her open and honest treatment of female sexuality, free from any sense of guilt, infused her writing with power, but also marked her as an iconoclast in her generation. On 31 May 2009, aged 75, she died at a hospital in Pune, but has earned considerable respect in recent years. Early Life Kamala Das was born in Punnayurkulam, Thrissur District in Kerala, on March 31, 1934, to V. M. Nair, a former managing editor program of the widely-circulated Malayalam daily Mathrubhumi, and Nalappatt Balamani Amma, a renowned Malayali poetess.She spent her childhood between Calcutta, where her father was employed as a senior officer in the Walford Transport Company that sold Bentley and Rolls Royce automobiles, and the Nalappatt heritable home in Punnayurkulam. Like her mother, Kamala Das also excelled in writing. Her love of poetry began at an early age through the influence of her great uncle, Nalappatt Narayana Menon, a prominent writer. At the age of 15, she got married to bank officer Madhava Das, who encouraged her writing interests, and she started writing and publishing both in English and in Malayalam.Calcutta in the 1960s was a tumultous time for the arts, and Kamala Das was one of the many voices that came up and started appearing in cult anthologies along with a generation of Indian English poets. Literary Career She was noted for her many Malayalam short stories as well as many poems written in English. Das was also a syndicated columnist. She in one case claimed that poetry does not sell in this country India, but her forthright columns, which sounded off on everything from womens issues and child care to politics, were popular.Das first book of poetry, spend In Calcutta was a breath of fresh air in Indian English poetry. She wrote chiefly of love, its betrayal, and the consequent anguish. Ms. Das abandoned the certainties offered by an archaic, and somewhat sterile, aestheticism for an independence of mind and body at a time when Indian poets were still governed by 19th-century diction, sentiment and romanticised love. Her second book of poetry, The descendants was even more explicit, urging women to grant him what makes you woman, the scent of Long hair, the musk of sweat between the breasts.The warm shock of menstrual blood, and all your Endless female hungers The Looking Glass This directness of her voice led to comparisons with Marguerite Duras and Sylvia Plath At the age of 42, she published a daring autobiography, My Story it was originally written in Malayalam and later she translated it into English. Later she admitted that much of the autobiography had sham elements. Kamala Das wrote on a diverse range of topics, often disparate- from the story of a poor old servant, about the sexual disposition of upper shopping mall class women living near a metropolitan city or in the middle of the ghetto.Some of her better-known stories include Pakshiyude Manam, Neypayasam, Thanuppu, and Chandana Marangal. She wrote a few novels, out of which Neermathalam Pootha Kalam, which was received favourably by the reading public as well as the critics, stands out. She travelled extensively to read poetry to Germanys University of Duisburg-Essen, University of Bonn and University of Duisburg universities, Adelaide Writers Festival , Frankfurt Book Fair, University of Kingston, Jamaica, blab outapore, and conspiracy Bank Festival (London), understandingia University (Montreal, Canada), etc.Her works are available in French, Spanish, Russian, German and Japanese. She has also held positions as Vice chairperson in Kerala Sahitya Academy, chairperson in Kerala forestry Board, chairperson of the Kerala Childrens Film Society, editor of Poet magazine and Poetry editor of Illustrated hebdomadly of India. Although occasionally seen as an attention-grabber in her early years, she is now seen as one of the most fictile influences on Indian English poetry. In 2009, The Times called her the mother of modern English Indian poetry. Conversion to IslamShe was born in a right Hindu Nair (Nallappattu) family having royal ancestry, After being asked by her lover Sadiq Ali, an Islamic scholar and a Muslim League MP, she embraced Islam in 1999 at the age of 65 and assumed the name Kamala Surayya. After converting, she wrote Life has change d for me since Nov. 14 when a young man named Sadiq Ali walked in to meet me. He is 38 and has a beautiful smile. later he began to woo me on the phone from Abu Dhabi and Dubai, reciting Urdu couplets and telling me of what he would do to me after our marriage. I took my nurse Mini and went to his place in my car.I stayed with him for three days. There was a sunlit river, some trees, and a lot of laughter. He asked me to become a Muslim which I did on my return home. Her conversion was rather controversial, among accessible and literary circles, with The Hindu calling it part of her histrionics. She said she liked being behind the protective veil of the purdah. Later, she felt it was not worth it to change ones religion and said I fell in love with a Muslim after my husbands death. He was kind and generous in the beginning. But I now feel one shouldnt change ones religion. It is not worth it. . PoliticsThough never politically active before, she launched a national political part y, Lok Seva Party, aiming asylum to orphaned mothers and packaging of secularism. In 1984 she unsuccessfully contested in the Indian Parliament elections. Personal Life Kamala Das had three sons M D Nalapat, Chinnen Das and Jayasurya Das. Madhav Das Nalapat, the eldest, is married to Princess Lakshmi Bayi (daughter of M. R. Ry. Sri Chembrol Raja Raja Varma Avargal) from the Travan pith Royal House. He holds the UNESCO Peace Chair and Professor of geopolitics at the Manipal Academy of Higher Education. He was formerly a resident editor of the Times of India.She had a sexual relationship with Sadiq Ali, an Islamic scholar who was much young in age. She herself describes her visit to Sadiq Alis home as follows I was almost at rest(prenominal) when Sadiq Ali climbed in beside me, holding me, breathing softly, whispering endearments, kissing my face, breasts and when he entered me, it was the first time I had ever experienced what it was like to feel a man from the inside. Womanhoo d in her Poetry Das uncanny honesty extends to her exploration of womanhood and love. In her poem An Introduction from Summer in Calcutta, the narrator says, I am every/ Woman who seeks love (de Souza 10).Though Amar Dwivedi criticizes Das for this self imposed and not natural universality, this feeling of oneness permeates her poetry (303). In Das eyes, womanhood involves certain collective experiences. Indian women, however, do not discuss these experiences in deference to social mores. Das consistently refuses to accept their silence. Feelings of longing and loss are not hold to a private misery. They are invited into the public sphere and acknowledged. Das seems to insist they are normal and have been felt by women across time.In The Maggots from the collection, The Descendants, Das corroborates just how old the sufferings of women are. She frames the pain of lost love with ancient Hindu myths (de Souza 13). On their last night together, Krishna asks Radha if she is disturbed by his kisses. Radha says, No, not at all, but thought, What is/ It to the corpse if the maggots nip? (de Souza 6-7). Radhas pain is searing, and her silence is given voice by Das. Furthermore, by making a powerful goddess prey to such thoughts, it serves as a governing body for ordinary women to have similar feelings. Eroticism in her PoetryCoupled with her exploration of womens needs is an attention to eroticism. The longing to lose ones self in passionate love is discussed in The Looking Glass from The Descendants. The narrator of the poem urges women to give their man what makes you women (de Souza 15). The things which society suggests are dirty or taboo are the very things which the women are supposed to give. The musk of sweat between breasts/ The warm shock of menstrual blood should not be hidden from ones beloved. In the narrators eyes, love should be defined by this type of unconditional honesty.A woman should Stand nude before the glass with him, and allow her lover to see her exactly as she is. Likewise, the woman should appreciate even the genial details of her lover, such as the jerky way he/ Urinates. Even if the woman may have to live Without him someday, the narrator does not seem to estimate bridling ones passions to protect ones self. A restrained love seems to be no love at all only a total immersion in love can do justice to this experience. Much like the creators of ancient Tantric art, Das makes no attempt to hide the sensuality of the human form her work seems to elebrate its joyous potential while acknowledging its concurrent dangers. Feminism Das once said, I always wanted love, and if you dont get it within your home, you stray a little(Warrior interview). Though some might label Das as a feminist for her candor in dealing with womens needs and desires, Das has never move to identify herself with any particular version of feminist activism (Raveendran 52). Das views can be characterized as a gut response, a reaction that, like h er poetry, is unfettered by others archetypes of right and wrong.Nonetheless, poet Eunice de Souza claims that Das has mapped out the terrain for post-colonial women in social and linguistic terms. Das has ventured into areas unclaimed by society and provided a point of reference for her colleagues. She has transcended the role of a poet and simply embraced the role of a very honest woman. Death On 31 May 2009, aged 75, she died at a hospital in Pune. Her body was flown to her home state of Kerala. She was buried at the Palayam Juma Masjid at Thiruvanathapuram with full state honour. Awards and other RecognitionsKamala Das has received many awards for her literary contribution, including nominated and shortlisted for Nobel Prize in 1984. Asian Poetry Prize-1998 Kent Award for English Writing from Asian Countries-1999 Asian World Prize-2000 Ezhuthachan Award-2009 Sahitya Academy Award-2003 Vayalar Award2001 Kerala Sahitya Academy Award-2005 Muttathu Varkey Award She was a longtime( prenominal) friend of Canadian writer Merrily Weisbord, who published a memoir of their friendship, The Love Queen of Malabar, in 2010. Kamala Dass Works English 1964 The Sirens (Asian Poetry Prize winner) 965 Summer in Calcutta (poetry Kents Award winner) 1967 The Descendants (poetry) 1973 The Old Playhouse and Other Poems (poetry) 1976 My Story (autobiography) 1977 Alphabet of Lust (novel) 1985 The Anamalai Poems (poetry) 1992 Padmavati the Harlot and Other Stories (collection of short stories) 1996 Only the Soul Knows How to Sing (poetry) 2001 Yaa Allah (collection of poems) 1979 Tonight,This Savage Rite (with Pritish Nandy) 1999 My Mother At Sixty-six (Poem) Malayalam 1964 Pakshiyude Manam (short stories) 1966 Naricheerukal Parakkumbol (short stories) 968 Thanuppu (short story, Sahitya Academi award) 1982 Ente Katha (autobiography) 1987 Balyakala Smaranakal (Childhood Memories) 1989 Varshangalkku Mumbu (Years Before) 1990 Palayan (novel) 1991 Neypayasam (short story) 1992 Dayari kkurippukal (novel) 1994 Neermathalam Pootha Kalam (novel, Vayalar Award) 1996 Chekkerunna Pakshikal (short stories) 1998 Nashtapetta Neelambari (short stories) 2005 Chandana Marangal (Novel) 2005 Madhavikkuttiyude Unmakkadhakal (short stories)2x 2005 Vandikkalakal (novel) 1999 My Mother At Sixty-six (Poem) Kamala Dass The Sunshine CatThey did this to her, the men who know her, the man She loved, who loved her not enough, being selfish And a coward, the husband who neither loved nor Used her, but was a ruthless watcher, and the band Of cynics she turned to, clinging to their chests where New hair burgeon forth like great-winged moths, burrowing her Face into their smells and their young lusts to forget To forget, oh, to forget, and, they said, each of Them, I do not love, I cannot love, it is not In my nature to love, but I can be kind to you. They let her slide from pegs of sanity into A bed made soft with tears, and she lay there weeping,For sleep had lost its use. I shall human body walls with tears, She said, walls to shut me in. Her husband shut her In, every morning, locked her in a room of books With a streak of sunshine lying near the door like A yellow cat to keep her company, but soon Winter came, and one day while locking her in, he Noticed that the cat of sunshine was only a Line, a half-thin line, and in the evening when He returned to take her out, she was a cold and Half dead woman, now of no use at all to men Summary In the poem The Sunshine Cat, the poetess rants over the disillusionment in her yearning for love.The ones who took advantage of her emotional instability are termed as men in general This so-called community inevitably included her husband too. He turned out to be a mere objective perceiver without any emotional attachment. Being selfish he did not exhibit the slightest display of love. And, being cowardly he did not dare to give in sexually to her, for it would mark the relegation of his egohis perspective of masculinity.. He w as a relentless onlooker to the extent of being insensitive for he watched her encounters with other men like a carnival affair.This is why Kamala Das employs the word band. She clinged on to this band of cynics. The word cling is very significant, as one clings out of desperation, as in clinging onto dear life. A cynic is a person who believes that only selfishness motivates human actions. Her live revolved around these egocentric people. Nevertheless, she burrows herself in the chest of these men. cable the word burrow is generally used with reference to mongooses or rats that dig holes to hide themselves of for security. For the poetess, this was a temporary refuge to render herself secure as long as it lasted.The hair on their chests were like great-winged moths that came like parasites between them. The lovers were younger than herself and told her that they could not love her, but could be kind to her. The word kind is utilized to connote clientele a patronizing attitude on part of these superior lovers. In Girish Karnads Nagamandala, Appanna locks Rani in the house, as he leaves for work. In the case of the poetess in the appointed poem,the husband jails her in a room full of books. However, Kamala Das does not crave for intellectual company, but emotional companionship.She seeks solace in the streak of sunlight beneath the door. This is her ray of hopeher Sunshine Cat the sunny impulse in her. Nevertheless, as her life approached its winter, her husband notices her while locking her ,one day,that this streak had minify to a thin line. The evening made him realize that she had mellowed down,partly due to age and partly owing to her despondency. The fire in her (evocative of the Sunshine Cat) had died away. Hence, she was of no use to any man as though the sole purpose of the woman in a mans life is for sexual gratification. A Hot Noon in MalabarThis is a noon of Beggers with whinning Voices, a noon for men who came from hills With parrots in a cage and fortune-cards, All stained with time, for brown Kurava girls With old eyes, who read palm in light singsong Voices, for bangle-sellers who spread On the cool black floor those red and green and blue Bangles, all covered with the dust of roads, Miles, grow cracks on the heels, so that when they Clambered up our porch, the noise was grating, Strange This is a noon for strangers who part The window-drapes and peer in, their hot eyes Brimming with the sun, not seeing a thing in Shadowy rooms and turn away and lookSo yearningly at the brick-ledged well. This Is a noon for strangers with mistrust in Their eyes, dark, silent ones who rarely speak At all, so that when they speak, their voices Run wild, like jungle-voices. Yes, this is A noon for wild men, wild thoughts, wild love. To Be here, far away, is torture. Wild feet Stirring up the dust, this hot noon, at my Home in Malabar, and I so far away American Literature Biography of enthalpy David Thoreau (1817-1862) henry David Thore au was born on July 12, 1817, in Concord, Massachusetts. He would live the majority of his life in that same town and die there in 1862.His father, a pencil manufacturer named John Thoreau, and mother Cynthia Dunbar Thoreau christened him David Henry but always called him Henry. As an adult, Thoreau began to give his name as Henry David but never had it legally changed. The Thoreaus had three other children in addition to Henry Helen, five years older than Henry, John, Jr. , two years older, and Sophia, two years younger. In 1821, the family moved to Boston, where they lived until 1823, when they returned to Concord. Thoreau later recalled a visit the family made to Walden puddle from Boston when he was four years old.When he was sixteen, Thoreau entered Harvard College, his grandfathers alma mater. His schooling was paying for by the money his father made as a pencil manufacturer, have with contributions from his elder siblings salaries from their teaching jobs. While at college , Thoreau studied Latin and Greek grammar and composition, and took classes in a wide variety of subjects, including mathematics, English, history, philosophy, and four different modern languages. He also made great use of the Harvard library holdings before graduating in 1837. After graduating, Thoreau accepted a job as a schoolteacher in Concord.His refusal to beat his students led to his dismissal from the position after only two weeks. That same year, Thoreau began keeping the journal in which he would write for the rest of his life and became friends with Concord residents Ralph Waldo Emerson and William Ellery Channing, and became a follower of Transcendentalism. Emerson provided a letter of reference for young Thoreau, when he traveled to Maine in search of a teaching position at a private school. Unable to find a job in Maine, Thoreau returned to Concord and opened a school with his brother John.Concord Academy differed from other schools in its lack of corporal punishment a nd encouragement of learning by doing ? as by scientific experiments and nature walks. The school was successful in attracting students but lasted only three years. When John became sick, Henry decided not to continue the school alone. He later worked as a handyman at odd jobs passim Concord and assisted in the familys pencil manufacture business. During this time, both Henry and John fell in love with and proposed to a young woman named Ellen Seawall, whose younger brother Edward was a student at their school.Her fathers disapproval of Thoreaus Transcendentalism led her to refuse his proposal. They sent her to New York to end the romance, and she there met and married Joseph Osgood, though she remained friends with the Thoreaus end-to-end her life, maintaining a correspondence with Sophia Thoreau and having Henry as a guest in her home. Thoreau lived at the Emerson house for a time during 1841, working as a handyman. He had a romance with Mary Russell, a young woman who stayed wi th the Emersons during the summers of 1840 and 1841.He wrote her a love poem in 1841 but never proposed, and she eventually married Marston Watson, a friend of Thoreaus from Harvard. In 1842, Thoreaus brother John became ill with lockjaw, the result of a small untreated wound. John died in Henrys arms, and Henry developed a harmonised illness, exhibiting some of the symptoms of lockjaw, for several months. The following year, Thoreau made his most extensive break from Concord when he moved in with Emersons brothers family on adducen Island as a indoctrinate for his children, hoping that he could succeed as a writer closer to the New York publishing industry.Upon returning home in December of 1843, Thoreau began to write an account of boat trip he had taken with John in 1839. That book would become A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, combining poetry, historical background, and philosophical reflections with the narrative of the trip. Realizing he needed fewer distraction s in order to concentrate on his writing, Thoreau decided to simplify his life by seduceing and living in a cabin by the banks of Walden Pond, about a mile and a half from the center of Concord. On July 4, 1845, the day before the anniversary of his brothers death,Thoreau moved into the cabin he had begun constructing during the spring. He stayed there for two years, sometimes traveling into Concord for supplies and eating with his family about once a week. Friends and family also visited him at his cabin, where he spent almost every night. In 1846, he made the first of three trips to Maine that would become the basis for a later series of essays entitled The Maine Woods. It was while Thoreau lived at Walden that he spent a night in the Concord jail that became the basis for the famous essay now known as Civil Disobedience. Thoreau had not paid his poll tax to the town for several years because he opposed the use of town revenues to finance the US war with Mexico and enforcement o f slavery laws. The town constable, when collar him, offered to pay the tax himself but Thoreau refused and spent a night in jail. The tax was paid that very night, most likely by Thoreaus aunt mare Thoreau, but Thoreau was not released until the morning. In 1848, Thoreau gave a speech to the Concord Lyceum that would be adapted to be the essay Resistance to Civil Government, published in 1849.In 1847, Thoreau spent the fall living at the Emerson household, looking after the family while Emerson was in England. After that, he returned to his parents home where he remained for the rest of his life. The curiosity of Concord residents regarding the reasons for the two years Thoreau spent living in a cabin in the woods led him to give a series of lectures in 1847 about his life at Walden. During this time, he also completed a preliminary drafts of both Walden and A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. The latter book was published by James Munroe & Co. n 1848. Thoreau had agreed to pay for any copies of the book which were not sold ultimately few were sold, and he lost $275 on the deal. among 1847 and 1854, Thoreau continually redrafted and revised Walden. Ticknor and Field published an edition of 2,000 copies in 1854. Reviews were predominantly positive, and 1,700 copies sold during the following year. Though Thoreau attempted to arrange a nation-wide lecture tour, only one city made an offer, and Thoreau limited his lectures to the Concord area. Also in 1854, Thoreau gave a speech on Slavery in Massachusetts. Though he was not a member of any abolitionist societies, because he opposed the notion of societies, he was fervently opposed to slavery. Five years later, he gave an impassioned supplication for Captain John Brown, defending the morality of Browns violent uprising at Harpers Ferry and condemning the US regimen for nutrimenting slavery. Another speech that year was called The Last Days of John Brown. Both demonstrated that Thoreau had proceeded from passive resistance to the institution of slavery to support for armed rebellion as a means of ending the foul institution.During 1851 and 1855, Thoreau suffered bouts of tuberculosis, whose symptoms he felt even as he continued to lecture. Thoreau spent the remainder of his life concentrating heavily on detailed, scientific representational writing. His Maine journals were published in Atlantic Monthly in 1858. James Russell Lowell, with whom Thoreau had long had a contentious relationship, was the editor of the publication and deleted a sentence from the essays, considering it blasphemous in response, Thoreau refused to speak to him for the rest of his life.Ticknor and Fields, the publishers of Walden, purchased the magazine in 1859, and in 1861, James Fields suggested 250-book reprinting of Walden. He also agreed to republish the unsold copies of A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. Thoreau had become quite ill with tuberculosis in 1861. On April 12, Fields visited Thoreau in Concord to take hold of the unsold copies of his book for republication. A year later, on May 6, 1862, Thoreau died at the age of 44. A month later, the reprintings of his two books were finally published.Essays published about Thoreau after his death, written by Lowell and Emerson, emphasized Thoreaus ascetic, Spartan qualities without giving adequate weight to his philosophical contributions. Thus, Thoreau was not well-appreciated during the nineteenth-century and was often seen as a lesser imitator of Emerson. Only beginning in the 1890s, after critical evaluation of his writings, did Thoreau come to be appreciated for his literary merit. In the twentieth-century, he has come to be seen as one of he most significant nineteenth-century American writers. Civil Disobedience Summary Thoreau opens his essay with the motto That government is best which governs least. His distrust of government stems from the tendency of the latter to be misdirect and abused before the peop le can actually express their will through it. A case in point is the Mexican war (1846-1848, which all-inclusive slavery into new US territories), orchestrated by a small elite of individuals who have manipulated government to their advantage against popular will.Government inherently lends itself to oppressive and corrupt uses since it enables a few men to impose their moral will on the majority and to profit economically from their own position of authority. Thoreau views government as a fundamental hindrance to the creative enterprise of the people it purports to represent. He cites as a prime example the regulation of trade and commerce, and its negative effect on the forces of the free market. A man has an obligation to act according to the dictates of his conscience, even if the latter goes against majority opinion, the presiding leadership, or the laws of society.In cases where the government supports unjust or immoral laws, Thoreaus notion of service to ones country parado xically takes the form of resistance against it. Resistance is the highest form of patriotism because it demonstrates a desire not to subvert government but to build a better one in the long term. Along these lines, Thoreau does not advocate a wholesale rejection of government, but resistance to those specific features deemed to be unjust or immoral. In the American tradition, men have a recognized and cherished right of revolution, from which Thoreau derives the concept of polished noncompliance.A man disgraces himself by associating with a government that treats even some of its citizens unjustly, even if he is not the direct victim of its injustice. Thoreau takes issue with William Paley, an English theologian and philosopher, who argues that any movement of resistance to government must balance the enormity of the grievance to be redressed and the probability and expense of redressing it. It may not be convenient to resist, and the personal costs may be great than the injusti ce to be remedied however, Thoreau firmly asserts the primacy of individual conscience over collective pragmatism.Thoreau turns to the issue of effecting change through democratic means. The position of the majority, however legitimate in the context of a democracy, is not tantamount to a moral position. Thoreau believes that the real obstacle to reform lies with those who disapprove of the measures of government while tacitly lending it their practical(a) commitment. At the very least, if an unjust government is not to be directly resisted, a man of true conviction should cease to lend it his indirect support in the form of taxes.Thoreau acknowledges that it is realistically impossible to deprive the government of tax dollars for the specific policies that one wishes to oppose. Still, complete payment of his taxes would be tantamount to expressing complete allegiance to the State. Thoreau calls on his fellow citizens to pull in ones horns their support from the government of Mas sachusetts and risk being thrown in prison for their resistance. Forced to keep all men in prison or abolish slavery, the State would quickly exhaust its resources and choose the latter course of action.For Thoreau, out of these acts of conscience flow a mans real manhood and immortality. Money is a generally corrupting force because it binds men to the institutions and the government responsible for unjust practices and policies, such as the enslavement of black Americans and the by-line of war with Mexico. Thoreau sees a paradoxically inverse relationship between money and freedom. The poor man has the greatest liberty to resist because he depends the least on the government for his own welfare and protection. After refusing to pay the poll tax for six years, Thoreau is thrown into jail for one night.While in prison, Thoreau realizes that the only advantage of the State is superior physical strength. Otherwise, it is completely devoid of moral or intellectual authority, and eve n with its brute force, cannot compel him to think a certain way. Why stoop other people to ones own moral standard? Thoreau meditates at length on this question. While seeing his neighbors as essentially well-intentioned and in some respects undeserving of any moral contempt for their apparent indifference to the States injustice, Thoreau nonetheless concludes that he has a human relation to his neighbors, and through them, millions of other men.He does not expect his neighbors to conform to his own beliefs, nor does he endeavor to change the nature of men. On the other hand, he refuses to tolerate the status quo. Despite his stance of civil disobedience on the questions of slavery and the Mexican war, Thoreau claims to have great respect and admiration for the ideals of American government and its institutions. Thoreau goes so far as to state that his first instinct has always been conformity.Statesmen, legislators, politiciansin short, any part of the machinery of state bureaucr acyare unable to scrutinize the government that lends them their authority. Thoreau values their contributions to society, their pragmatism and their diplomacy, but feels that only someone outside of government can speak the Truth about it. The purest sources of truth are, in Thoreaus view, the Constitution and the Bible. Not surprisingly, Thoreau holds in low esteem the entire political class, which he considers incapable of devising the most basic forms of legislation.In his last paragraph, Thoreau comes full circle to discussing the authority and reach of government, which derives from the sanction and consent of the governed. Democracy is not the last step in the evolution of government, as there is still greater room for the State to recognize the freedom and rights of the individual. Thoreau concludes on an utopic note, saying such a State is one he has imagined but not yet anywhere seen. Civil Disobedience Themes The right to resistance Thoreau affirms the absolute right of individuals to withdraw their support rom a government whose policies are immoral or unjust. He takes issue with the brand of moral philosophy that weighs the possible consequences of civil disobedience against the seriousness of the injustice. The methods of resistance Thoreau condones in his essay are pacifist and rely principally on economic pressure for example, withholding taxes in order to drain the State of its resources and hence its ability to continue its unjust policies. The ultimate goal of civil disobedience is not to undermine democracy but to reinforce its core values of liberty and respect for the individual.Individual conscience and morality Only an individual can have and exercise a conscience. By definition, both the State and corporations are impersonal, amoral entities that are nonetheless composed of individuals. It has been truly said, that a corporation has no