"Emma" - Book Review by Syeda Ayesha Amreen of BA Final Year 

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The Book "Emma" was written by Jane Austen, and it was published by John Murry in the year 1815.

Jane Austen was born in Steventon, Hampshire on December 16, 1775, and grew up in a tight-knit family. Jane Austen is one of the most recognized names in English literature and also one of the greatest novelists of the 19th century. She occupies a high place among female novelists in England. Her contribution to the English novel is noteworthy. She was a careful artist, who imparted realism to her novels. It is also a notable contribution, that she feminized the English novel. Jane Austen completed only six official works during her lifetime, two of which were published after her death. Austen also wrote two incomplete novels. A favorite of filmmakers, Austen's best-known novels Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma, and Mansfield Park have been adapted into successful films and mini-series.

Emma, the fourth novel by Jane Austen, was published in three volumes in 1815, set in Highbury, England, in the early 19th century. The novel is dedicated to a young woman, who enthusiastically wraps her acquaintances and neighbors. Emma, a clever, pretty, and self-satisfied young woman, is the daughter, and mistress of the house of Mr. Woodhouse. She was the youngest of the two daughters of a most affectionate indulgent father, and had, in consequence of her sister’s marriage, been mistress of his house from a very early period. Her mother had died too long ago for her to have more than an indistinct

remembrance of her caresses, and her place had been supplied by an excellent woman as governess, who had fallen little short of a mother in affection. 

Emma believes she is an excellent matchmaker. As she tells her father and her dear friend Mr. Knightley, that she practically arranged the recent marriage between her former governess, Miss Taylor, and the widower Mr. Weston. (She did, after all, introduce them.) After such a clear “success,” Emma is determined to make another match. This time, she has set her sights on the village vicar, Mr. Elton. Both Emma’s father and Mr. Knightley caution her against interfering, but they ultimately fail to dissuade her. Shortly thereafter, Emma befriends Harriet Smith, a 17-year-old student at a local boarding school. Harriet’s parentage is unknown; she is “the natural daughter of somebody”, who many years ago placed her in the care of the school’s headmistress, Mrs. Goddard. Despite the obscurity of her birth and her perceived inferior social status, Emma decides that Harriet is a perfect match for Mr. Elton. Emma sets about improving her friend, by discouraging her interest in Robert Martin, who is a young farmer and whose family is renting land from Mr. Knightley. Harriet has feelings for Robert (and Robert for her). Emma convinces her otherwise; she tells Harriet that Robert is beneath her.

When Robert writes a letter asking for her hand in marriage, Harriet, with Emma’s counsel, refuses him. When Mr. Knightley visits Emma, he excitedly tells her about Robert’s intent to marry Harriet. After Emma informs him that Harriet has already rejected Robert’s proposal (with her help), and Mr. Knightley is furious. He criticizes Emma for interfering, claiming Robert is a respectable man and a good match for

Harriet. Mr. Knightley storms out. He does not visit Emma again for some time. In his absence, Emma continues to push Harriet and Mr. Elton together. With Robert out of the way, and Harriet and Mr. Elton spending more and more time together, Emma begins to celebrate the success of her endeavor. All seems to be going well until Christmas Eve, when Mr. Elton reveals to Emma that he is in love with her, not Harriet, and has been spending time with Harriet only to please her. Humiliated by her attempt to pair him 

with Harriet, Mr. Elton resolves to retire to Bath. Emma is forced to tell Harriet about Mr. Elton and spends the next several days consoling her. Meanwhile, two new visitors arrive in Highbury: Jane Fairfax, the beautiful orphaned niece of Emma’s neighbor Miss Bates, and Frank Churchill, the dashing young son of Mr. Weston. Initially, Emma dislikes Jane. She condemns her for being too “cold” and too “cautious.” (The narrator suggests that Emma is jealous of Jane because Jane had previously met Frank, whom Emma has taken a liking to.) Mr. Knightley defends Jane, reminding Emma that, whereas she is privileged, Jane has no fortune and must soon leave to work as a governess. Mrs. Weston suspects that Mr. Knightley harbors some romantic feelings for Jane. Emma adamantly denies this.

Emma’s initial interest in Frank does not last. After a while, she begins to imagine him as a potential match for Harriet, and when Harriet confesses her love for a man of a higher social status, Emma assumes she means Frank. As it turns out, Harriet is in love with Mr. Knightley, who, at a recent village ball, saved her from the embarrassment of being snubbed by Mr. Elton and his new wife. Suddenly, Emma realizes that she too loves Mr. Knightley. She realizes that if she had let Harriet marry Robert, she might have avoided this whole mess. And thus the denouement begins. Not long after Harriet’s confession, Frank makes a hasty departure from Highbury. As he later explains in a letter to Emma, he and Jane have secretly been engaged all along. His flirtation with Emma was just a ruse—a way to buy time until his relatives agreed to his marriage with Jane. Emma and Mr. Knightley discuss this surprise turn of events. To Mr. Knightley’s surprise, Emma confesses that she never loved Frank. Mr. Knightley, in response, confesses his love for Emma. She is overjoyed, and they implicitly agree to get married. Emma briefly worries about Harriet and how she will receive the news of their engagement. Emma is pleased to

learn that Harriet has decided to marry Robert after all this. The novel thus concludes with three marriages: Jane and Frank, Harriet and Robert, and Emma and Mr. Knightley.

In my opinion, I feel that I prefer "Emma" to all the other Jane Austen books except Pride & Prejudice, which I love just as well. Emma has this unique sense of carefree freedom and happiness. The characters in the book are so very close to life. Also, I feel that this theme of "Hooking Up" people is very real to most teenagers. So I guess I understand what Emma thinks and feels throughout the novel. On the whole, this book is full of fun and blunders and turns out to be a wonderful romance.

"In the Country of Deceit" - Book Review by Deepshikha Patangay of BA Final Year

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The book "In The Country Of Deceit" is written by Shashi Deshpande. The book was published by Penguin Groups in the year 2008.

Shashi Deshpande is an Indian novelist. She is a recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Padma Shri Award in 1990 and 2009 respectively. She is the daughter of Kannada dramatist and writer Adya Rangacharya. She has written novels like “The Dark Holds No Terror”, “That Long Silence” and so on. She emphasizes more about the problems of Indian women and the stories of their dark struggles through her writings. 

“In the Country of Deceit” narrates the doomed love affair between an unmarried woman, Devayani, and a married police officer, Ashok Chinappa. In the novel, Deshpande touches upon the themes of desire, guilt, deceit, adult love, and physical relationship outside marriage.
Devayani, a young 27-year-old woman was an English teacher. She moved to Rajnur after the death of her father. She had an elder sister, who is more like her best friend Savitri. Savitri was a married woman who had children.

The novel starts with the description of Savi’s housewarming ceremony. Devayani describes the love, bond, and affection that she has towards her sister. As her elder sister was married and had kids, her uncle and aunt also wanted Devayani to get married. Through the letters, her aunt Sindhu talks about the marriage proposals for Devayani. As she is living alone she is under constant pressure to get married. But according to her, she feels that she is settled. She questions in her heart, that what more is required to fill the word “settled” as she had a job and her own house. She rejects the marriage proposals that her aunt had sent her.

Later, Devayani happens to interact with Rani, whose real name is Priya. She was a former actress, married to the Ranjur’s District Superintendent of Police Mr. Ashok Chinappa, and had children. Eventually, Rani and Devayani become good friends. When Rani was busy in the film industry looking for many opportunities, her husband Ashok approached Devayani.
Devayani and Ashok would spend time together, as they started dating. When Devayani shared her darkest secret which is, “Dating A Married Man!” with her sister Savi, Savi was very upset. Despite Savi explaining that it was wrong Devayani did not care and started to spend more time with Ashok. For the first time, besides all her life problems, including the family property dealings, Devayani felt good with Ashok. She was falling in love with him. Whenever Rani was not in town, Ashok and Devayani would meet secretly. It was the darkest secret of them as they had a physical relationship. For her, it was love as no one approached her the way Ashok had approached her.

One day, Devayani fainted and was admitted to the hospital. She started to think from her sister’s point of view and started to feel guilty for falling for a man who was her friend’s husband. She was guilty of cheating on her friend but at the same time, she was in love with her husband. This made her feel stressed and she fainted. At the hospital, Ashok confessed that he was deeply in love with Devayani and wanted to marry her. Though he had other women in his life, he told that he never felt the way he felt towards Devayani. She was upset and she wanted to ignore him, at that moment, Ashok proposed to her and told her that he could leave his children and wife for her. This made Devayani feel that Ashok was her true love.

After days, when she was spending time with Rani, she got to know that they were shifting from Rajnur. Ashok had not told her about it, and Devayani felt insecure. He constantly spoke that he would leave his wife and children for her but, when the day came, when they had to shift to another town, Ashok left her. He told her that he has a family and he can’t leave his children and left without any contact. Devayani felt as if her world had collapsed. The desire to love a married man has torn her heart into pieces.
During her tough times, her family did not leave her side. Her sister and aunt took care of her and advised her to move on. Devayani left her past behind in her mind, but carried the guilt in her heart and tried to move on.

In my opinion, I feel this is one of the finest works of Shashi Deshpande who fabulously narrated the story. The desire and the guilt that Deshpande brings up with the situations by addressing the bold choice of Devayani speaks of how open-minded Devayani was. But her bold choice of loving a married man had made her life miserable. Even today, in our society this is one of the darkest secrets of the majority of girls. Deshpande brings out the reality of society in her novel. To find love, it doesn’t mean that women must find single men, until and unless it is in India. Her bold choice makes us understand that to love and to receive love from the same person is enough to live a happy life. But as Ashok cheated, most of the partners cheat to fulfill their nasty desires. Surprisingly India has more ‘Partner- Cheating’ cases but hardly there are people who love their partners. Love is a fancy feast that has its challenges in life. And sometimes love brings us into a situation where we have to choose “Do or Die”. “A Fancy Feast That’s What Love Is!”

"Emma" - Book Review by Rafath Begum of BA Final Year

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The book “EMMA” was written by “Jane Austen” and published by “John Murray” in the year 1815. Jane Austen was an English novelist. She wrote many books of romantic fiction about the landed gentry. Her works made her one of the most famous and beloved writers in English literature. She is one of the great masters of the English novel and her style of writing is a mix of Neoclassicism and Romanticism. Austen created a transition into Romanticism, which encouraged passion and imagination in writings, instead of a strict and a stale writing style. Mixing these two styles, was one of the strongest talents of Austen, which gave her an edge in the literary world. Austen’s writings stand out for their comedy, self-awareness, and realistic detailed portrayals of characters and their relationships.

Emma is one of the best books of Austen and at the same time her last published book too. Emma is the central character of the story. She is indeed beautiful, wealthy, and smart, who was nearly twenty years old. Although she is convinced that she will never marry, but still believes that she is an excellent matchmaker. As she tells her father and her dear friend Mr. Knightley, that recently she had arranged the marriage of her former governess, Miss Taylor, and the widower Mr. Weston, and after such a clear success, Emma is determined to make another match. Mr. Knightley, who is also the brother-in-law of Emma's elder sister, is another important character and also the love interest of Emma. The story proceeds fascinatingly, as there are a lot of misunderstandings being aroused between the characters. In the story, the central character goes through a lot in her life and changes her thought about not getting married, and realizes her love for Knightley.

The story ends with a beautiful climax, Emma gets married to her love Mr.Knightley. The wishes, the hopes, the confidence, and the predictions, of the elegant bond of the true friends, who witnessed the ceremony, were fully assured of the perfect happiness of the union.

To conclude, I would just say that, Emma is one of the best writings of Jane Austen. I enjoyed the process of reading the book, and also I couldn’t stop myself from smiling at the central character Emma, who had several misunderstandings. And according to my visualization, the story focuses on three themes love, attraction, and misunderstanding. Moreover, I got to know, how people used to live and think in the past. I loved the way how the characters developed for a good reason and of course, the writing style of Jane Austen attracts the reader to read the novel.

 

"It Was Her All Along" - By Devyani Konkati, B.Sc. BTCFS I Year

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Esha was a “just-turned-adult", who came from a toxic environment. Growing up, she could not identify the difference between the goodness and poison of the world. She thought that the world existed in different colors, but as time kept passing by, the colors started to fade and all she could see was blacks and whites.

She always longed for validation from others and waited to get something, which she never provided to herself. She was bound to the strings of inevitability, that wounded her, and always blamed herself for all of this. She felt helpless, and lost, and fell into the trance, where her inner child and her angry teen sought that one hope that could finally free her from those inevitabilities.

Days went by with her hunt for hope and one sharp strike that would cut her strings down. She was now stepping into adulthood, with the mark of turning eighteen. She used this as an excuse to spend time with herself, reminiscing her memories, and while doing so, she found an old letter, probably written by her when she was young. The letter described, how proud she would be of herself, after overcoming adversities and how her little self wanted to protect her. She broke down into tears at the messy handwriting of the letter that carried words of liveliness. She realized that she was self-made and came so far and this also directed her to realize that it was her all along, who ceased her from finding herself. Esha found the immunity to light the spark to her flame again.

Esha knew that she needed to work on herself and her relationships, which were the major parts of it, and perceived that only she was able to do that. She finally started putting effort into it. Soon after she did, she felt everything fall into its place. She was able to cut off the strings that she tied to herself. She gave herself love, affection, care, and respect which led her to gain it from others as well and understood that what she got was what she gave. She found her wings but she also made sure that her feet were on the ground. She came out of that trance and to her surprise; it was her adult self who was able to heal the wounds of her inner child and angry teen. She turned her scars into her beautiful constellation and filled her world with the colors she wanted. Esha saw to it that her personal relationships and social relationships had boundaries and she finally accepted that she shall never find herself in someone else.

 

MORAL: "What you give is what you get and never try to see yourself in others. All your answers lie within yourself"

"Emotion Strengthens The Bond" - By Gouthami Kawlaskar, B.com Computers I Year

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One day an elderly postman knocked on the door of a house and said, “Take the letter".

As soon as he said this, a little girl’s voice echoed from inside, “I am coming, please wait”.

(Five minutes passed but no one came out) 

The postman again said, “Is there anyone to take the letter? I have to go to several other places too”.

Now, the girl replied, “Uncle, if you are in a hurry, keep the letter under the door. It will take time for me to come”.

The old postman replied, “No, I am waiting. It is a registered letter and someone’s signature is needed".

After about 10 minutes, the door opened. The postman was angry because he had to wait. He was about to shout at the girl but as soon as the door opened, the postman was shocked to see her in front of him. She was a handicapped girl who had no legs. The postman quietly gave the letter, took her signature, and left.

The little girl often lived alone in her house. Her mother was no more in this world, and her father used to work far away. A maid used to stay in the house with the girl in the morning and the evening to take care of her. But she used to live all alone in her house during the daytime. In a month or two, whenever a mail used to come, the postman would knock and call for the girl and then wait patiently at the door. 

Gradually, there was a growth of interaction and attachment between the two. The little girl noticed that the postman used to come barefoot to deliver the mail. The season of rain had arrived and one day when the postman left after giving the letter to the girl, his footprints were left on the wet soil. So, the girl went inside and came out with a piece of paper and then placed it on the footprint, and also took a picture of the same. The next day, she asked her maid to get a pair of shoes of that size and keep them in the house. 

The festival of Diwali was about to come and the postman went to those houses, where he used to deliver the mail, to ask for a Diwali gift but then he thought about the little girl. He assumed that it wouldn’t be right to ask anything from her. He also thought that it would not be good to meet the girl empty-handed at the time of festival. So, he bought a small chocolate for the little girl. 

The next day, he went to the little girl’s house and knocked. When the girl opened the door, the old postman gave her a chocolate and said, “This is a small gift for you".

The girl was very happy to get that gift and asked the postman to wait for some time. After a while, she brought a big box and gave it to the postman and said, “Uncle, this is a gift for you on the occasion of Diwali”.

The postman was surprised to see the box and said, “You are like a daughter to me. How can I take a gift from you?”. 

The little girl insisted him and said, “Uncle please don’t refuse to accept my gift, I would be happy if you accept it".

“Ok”, said the old man and took the box by lovingly placing his hand on the girl’s head, as if blessing her.

After going home, when the postman opened the box, he was surprised to see that there was a pair of shoes in it. His eyes twinkled and he couldn’t believe that the girl was so concerned for him.

The next day, the postman reached his post office and pleaded the postmaster to immediately transfer him to another area. When the postmaster asked about the reason for the transfer, he told him everything and said with wet eyes, “Sir, after today I will not be able to go to that street again, that little girl saw me barefoot and gave me a pair of shoes but how will I be able to give her feet?”.

Saying this the postman bursts out into tears. 

MORAL: To feel the pain of others and to understand their suffering, is such a human quality without which every human is incomplete. We should pray to god to grant us the ornament of sensitivity so that we can do our part in reducing the sufferings of others.