Book Review: Totto-Chan The little girl at the Window

શીર્ષક: તોત્તો-ચાન

લેખક: તેત્સુકો કુરોયાનાગી

અનુવાદ: રમણ સોની

મૂળ જાપાની ભાષામાં લખાયેલું  આ પુસ્તક બીજી અનેક ભાષાઓમાં અનુવાદિત થયેલ છે. 

તોતો-ચાન પુસ્તક ની નાયિકા તેત્સુકો કુરોયાનાગીએ પોતાના શાળા- જીવનના સંસ્મરણો અને સત્ય ઘટનાઓ નાની નાની પ્રસંગ કથાઓ રૂપે રજૂ કરી છે. વાત છે નાયિકા તેત્સુકો કુરોયાનાગી એટલે કે તોતો-ચાનની 'ખરાબ, નઠોર છોકરી' માંથી 'તું સાચે જ ખૂબ સારી છોકરી છે' સુધીની સફર. 

નટખટ, ચંચળ અને જીજ્ઞાસુ તોતો-ચાનના મનમાં  'તોમોએ' નામની નવી શાળાના બે ઝાડનું બનેલું પ્રવેશદ્વાર તથા રેલવેના ડબ્બામાં ચાલતા વર્ગખંડ જોઈને આનંદ તથા અચરજનુ મોજું ફરી વળે છે. શાળાના હેડમાસ્તર  કોબાયાશી ખૂબ જ પ્રેમાળ અને કલ્પનાશીલ હતા. બાળકોને મુકત વાતાવરણ અને સમતોલ આહાર મળે એની ખાસ કાળજી લેતા હતા. શ્રી કોબાયાશીના જાપાન અને અમેરીકાના યુધ્ધની વિષમ પરિસ્થિતિમાં પણ શાળાનું વાતાવરણ જીવંત અને ભયમુક્ત રહે એવા પ્રયત્ન રહેતા. 

ઈ.સ. ૧૯૪૫ માં ટોકિયો પર હવાઈ હુમલો થયેલો ત્યારે આગ લાગેલી ને એમાં તોમોએ શાળા ભસ્મીભૂત થઈ ગયેલી, ત્યારે શ્રી કોબાયાશી ફરી પોતાની આદર્શ શાળા સ્થાપવાનું સ્વપ્ન સેવે છે પરંતુ એ સ્વપ્ન વાસ્તવિકતા માં પરિણમે એ પહેલાં ઓગણસિત્તેરની વયે અવસાન પામે છે, પરંતુ શ્રી કોબાયાશી, એમનો સ્નેહાળ સ્વભાવ અને અનેરી શિક્ષણ પધ્ધતિ એમના વિધ્યાર્થીઓમા  તથા એમની જ વિધ્યાર્થી દ્વારા લખાયેલ પુસ્તક સ્વરૂપે જીવંત રહેશે. 

એક વિધ્યાર્થીએ એના શિક્ષક વિશે લખેલું પુસ્તક દરેક શિક્ષકે અચૂક વાચવા જેવું છે!

Refund: One act play by Fritz Karinthy

characters:  

• wasserkopf

• The Principal 

• The teachers of various Subjects  ( History, geography,mathematics, Physics)

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Refund Play Summary:  

Refund is a one act play by famous Hungarian writer Fritz Karinthy.Fritz Karinthy is a well known short story writer who wrote the one act play “Refund” in 1938. This is the story of a former student Wasserkopf, who demands that his tuition should be refunded because he feels his education was worthless. But he loses his fight when he is tricked by the mathematics master.  The play “Refund” is full of humour which deals with an extraordinarily absurd situation.

Wasserkopf is forty years old. He could not get any job and wherever he goes people tell him that he is fit for nothing. One day he meets Leaderer and asks him about his business. When Leaderer tells him about foreign exchange and Hungarian money, he is not able to understand anything and starts asking questions about foreign exchange. Leaderer says when Wasserkopf does not know the silly thing then what had he studied? He better can go to the school and get his tuition fees back. Wasserkopf who is jobless and does not have any finance, thought this idea as something beneficial. So he went to the school where he studied once.

Wasserkopf wanted the refund of his tuition fees which were paid eighteen years ago because he was taught badly. When he asks for it, the principal is shocked. The principal is in a peculiar situation now and he calls for an urgent meeting with all other staff members. The masters realized that Wasserkopf’s real intention was to fail in the exam and claim the refund. Therefore, they decided to outsmart the old student by proving all his answers right. The Mathematics Master said that they had to be united and ought to help each other in implementing their plan. The exam was an oral one as Wasserkopf’s refusal to write. They decide that whatever answers he gives whether it is right or wrong they will prove him right.

The first question was from the History Master. The Master asked him how many years the ‘Thirty Years’ war lasted. The answer was in the question itself. But Wasserkopf, who was keen on giving wrong answers, said that the ‘Thirty Years war’, lasted seven metres. The History Master did not know how to prove this answer right. Fortunately for him, the Mathematics master aided him by proving that the answer was right on the basis of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. The Master argued that time and space are relative terms and therefore years can be represented in terms of meter. The war took place during half of each day, three hours a day to eat, hours given up to noon day, so totally seven years.  The actual time spent in fighting was seven years and it has been by Einstein’s equivalence of seven meters. Wasserkopf called the History Master a numskull.

 The Physics Master asked Wasserkopf whether clocks in church become smaller if one walks away from it or is it because of optical illusion.  He called The Physics master an ass.  The master says that the answer is correct because the ass does not have any illusion of vision. Therefore, Wasserkopf has given a metaphorical explanation. Wasserkopf called him a cannibal.

     The Geography Master asks Wasserkopf for the name of a city which has the same name as the capital of German Province of Brunswick.  He replied as ‘Same’.  Master said it as the correct answer.  There was a legend that once as the emperor Barbarossa was riding in the city, he met a young peasant (farmer) girl, who was munching a bun mouthful.  He called out to her God Bless you and asked her the name of the city, she answered the same to you sir for his wishes, and the Emperor mistook the city name as ‘Same’.

One by one each teacher justified his wrong answer to be the correct one and they marked him excellent. Though Wasserkopf gives wrong answers and uses abusive words to each teacher, they don't show their anger because they have to prove him as an excellent student.

At last the mathematics master asks him a difficult question and an easy question. For the easy question he gives the wrong answer and the master gets angry and says that he has failed in his examination so he should be given his tuition fees back. The master says that they have decided to give him his tuition fees back and asks for the exact amount which he has to get. Wasserkopf without knowing that he is going to fall into their trap gives them the list of exact amounts. The mathematics master says that was his difficult question and he gave the right answer. Now he is proved excellent in the entire subject and they throw him out without allowing him to say anything further. It shows the ability of the teachers to manage the situation and how they tackle Wasserkopf without spoiling the reputation of their school.

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laugh and be Merry by John Masefield

Laugh and be Merry

About Poet :

John Masefield was born in Ledbury in Herefordshire in the year  1878. It was at an early age of sixteen, Masefield joined the merchant navy. He remained the Poet laureate of United Kingdom from 1830 until his death, 1867. Masefield developed his passion for writing and reading while he was on his voyage! Today, he is popular for his classic children’s novels like The Midnight Folk and The Box of Delight.

 About Poem:

Here, we are attempting an analysis of Laugh and Be Merry by John Masefield. The poem is written in plain verse with a rhythmic style. The theme of Laugh and Be Merry is to have a constructive outlook in life. Yes, the purpose of creation is to make this better and discover happiness! Anything we create or do, is an attempt to make ourselves happy! When God created this Earth and gave life to us, his main purpose was to see us happy! Our happiness would actually make God happy! While we forget the very purpose of creation, Masefield attempts to express the same through his poetic  verse!

 Poem analysis :

Laugh and be merry, remember, better the world with a song,

Better the world with a blow in the teeth of a wrong.

Laugh, for the time is brief, a thread the length of a span.

Laugh and be proud to belong to the old proud pageant of man.

 

“Laugh and Be Merry” is actually the symbol of being human! The phrase is used as a tagline and the very purpose of our life. Hence the poet commences the poem with this phrase! The world becomes better with every song! The song actually refers to the inner voice when happy!

“Blow in the teeth of a wrong”

If you do something wrong, make a mistake, punishment is inevitable! Yes, the poet says, a blow (punishment) makes the world better because it saves you from “the bigger punishment”.

…Time is brief,

Our time on Earth is very limited and actually can be measured with a thread! In this  little life, is there any scope to sit and repent! Well, that’s a no-no!

Laugh and be proud to belong…

This is again a very sweet expression that reflects the notion of being humane. It’s not that we’d only be happy throughout our life! We equally need to be proud of our existence and the place from where we belonged.

Laugh and be merry: remember, in olden time.

God made Heaven and Earth for joy He took in a rhyme,

Made them, and filled them full with the strong red wine of

His mirth

The splendid joy of the stars: the joy of the earth.

In this stanza Masefield expresses his opinion about the creation of Earth! According to him, God made Heaven and Earth for joy and took in a rhyme! Mark, there is no mention of Hell! The poem is actually an attempt to look into the brighter side of creation without depicting instances of the sleuth.

… filled them full with the strong red wine of

His mirth

 

The phrase ‘red wine’ is used to express the feeling of authority, celebration and merry-making! In the next line, the poet conveys, as the heaven and the star rejoice, so does the earth!

So we must laugh and drink from the deep blue cup of the sky,

Join the jubilant song of the great stars sweeping by,

Laugh, and battle, and work, and drink of the wine outpoured

In the dear green earth, the sign of the joy of the Lord.

The stretch of the sky is endless! The poet appeals us (…so we must laugh and drink) to lead our life much like the sky which knows no barrier and constraint! You shouldn’t to constrained to any feeling!

Star actually is referred to ‘Us’ and the way we should see our life refers to the “sky”.

In life, it’s ok to fight, laugh, get wounded, or anything! But you should laugh because “to be sad is not an option for you”

Theme of Laugh and Be Merry Revealed

In these very lines …. Laugh, and battle, and work, and drink of the wine outpoured

In the dear green earth, the sign of the joy of the Lord… lays hidden the theme of the poem!

Actually, the words “laugh”, “battle”, “work” are associated with “drinking of the wine”

The words, “work and battle” here symbolize all human actions! In a battle, lives are lost, but still the poet tells you to laugh because if battle is inevitable, you have to develop the feeling of accepting the loss happily! That’s the way of creation! Only if nine others fail, one becomes successful – this is the truth! To love and laugh even after failure is the theme of the poem! Because, that actually is the greatest win! When all the ten are happy, that’s the sign of the joy of the Lord.

Laugh and be merry together, like brothers akin,

Guesting awhile in the rooms of a beautiful inn,

Glad till the dancing stops, and the lilt of the music ends.

Laugh till the game is played; and be you merry, my friends.

The final stanza ignites the feeling of brotherhood because we all are eventually going to die! The purpose of hatred or separation withers upon realizing the ultimate end of each being! We are in our individual rooms of a beautiful inn. Anytime the music can stop, and then it actually ends! So, let there be a happy beginning, happy journey and a happy ending!

Analysis of the poem

The poem “Laugh and be Merry” by John Masefield examines the theme of living ‘Life’ to the full. In this poem he urges us to be cheerful and be merry and live the ‘Life’ to the fullest. The primary idea of the creation of entire universe is for happiness of man. The poet reminds us that life is not a bed of roses. There may be challenges and sufferings and the moments of sorrow or unhappiness in the life of each person but they are all passing things. The joy that we derive from the universe and from the Nature of the Earth is everlasting. Men will not do well to have recourse to Nature, which is an embodiment of God’s beauty and grandeur. So, the poet advises us to laugh and be merry.

Life is brief and it is not to be wasted away in sorrow and despair. He advocates us to get pleasure from our lives in this world, since the universe itself is a manifestation of the joy of God. Each moment of our life should be cherished and rejoiced. The celestial bodies like moon and stars are created for the happiness of man. So we should be enlivened by God’s purposeful creation. The poet compares the world with an inn where all human beings are temporary guests. We should enjoy life till it comes to an end and the lilt of music of life ends. So man should make use of his short and brief stay on Earth by laughing away his troubles and sorrows. The entire universe is created with the sweet pattern of music and filled them with intoxicating red wine that is His extreme joy and delight. He must draw happiness and inspiration from everything around him. The joy of life is very basis of our brotherhood and mutual love. Man must live happily with fellow men like brothers residing in an inn. He must play game of life cheerfully and pass through the journey of joy till he reaches his ultimate goal or destination. Similarly, we should enjoy our life to the last breath; and the song finishes. Life is compared to a game also. While playing we must enjoy the game without fretting about victory or defeat. Let us play the game of life cheerfully till to the end.