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Short meditation -1 ● Make yourself comfortable and close your eyes. ● Choose a word that symbolises 'calmness' to you : 'harmony', 'tranquility', 'serenity', 'peace', 'relax'. ● Meditate on your chosen word. Visualise scenes that tie in with the word or build up mental images that illustrate the word. You can also spend some time imagining what it would feel like if you experienced harmony or tranquility inside yourself. ● Open your eyes again.

std. 12 Unit: 3 Read:2 Stress Control Exercises 🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼

Glossary: ========== grieved - feel sad unprincipled - dishonest, deceitful astray - off track persuade - encourage, induce espouse - promote propaganda - publicity depreciate - criticize din - noise, commotion endure - tolerate, bear grumbling - complaining amenable - easily persuaded oratory - skill in public speaking warrent - assurance, guarantee persistent - constant vanity - excessive pride valiantly - courageously crippled - disabled or impaired horrible - extremely unpleasant legacy - ownership by heredity cherished - loved and cared basic - fundamental freight - goods for transportation stokehold - the boiler room of a steamship stockyard - temporary animal enclosure lumber raft - flat boat carrying logs sawed for use scanty - little, insufficient compensation - reimbursement abolshed - eliminate, got rid of decent - proper, appropriate wrought - deeply stirred invasion - attack conquest - victory unabated - persistent, constant vigour - vitality, force, egacy belligerent - aggressive 🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼 Strike Against War

We are not free unless the men who frame and execute the laws represent the interests of the lives of the people and no other interest. The ballot does not make a free man out of a wage slave. There has never existed a truly free and democratic nation in the world. From time immemorial men have followed with blind loyalty the stronge men who had the power of money and of armies. Even while battlefields were piled high with their own dead, they have tilled the lands if the rulers and have been robbed off the fruits of their labour. They have built palaces and pyramids, temples and cathedrals that held no real shrine of liberty. As civilization has grown more complex, the workers have become more and more enslaved, until today they are little more than parts of the machines they operate. Daily they face the dangers of railroad, bridge, skyscraper, freight train, stokehold, stockyard and training at the docks, on the railroads and underground and on the seas. They move the traffic and pass from land to land the precious commodities that make it possible for us to live. And what is their reward? A scanty wage, often poverty, rents taxes tributes and war compensations. The kind of preparedness the workers want is reorganization and reconstruction of their whole life, such as has never been attempted by statesmen or governments. The Germans found out years ago that they could not raise good soldiers in the slums so they abolished the slums. They saw to it that all the people had at least a few of the essentials of civilization: decent lodging, clean streets, wholesome if scanty food, proper medicle care and proper safeguards for the workers in their occupatons. That is only a small part of what should be done. It is your business to force these reforms on the Administration. Let there be no more talk about what a government can or can not do. All these things have been done by all the belligerant nations in the turmoil of war. Every fundamental industry has been managed better by the governments than by private corporations. It is your duty to insist upon still more radical measure. It is your business to see that no child is employed in an industrial establishment or mine or store, and that no work is needlessly exposed to accident or disease. It is your business to make them give you clean cities, free from smoke, dirt and congestion. It is your business to make them pay you a living wage. It is your business to see that this kind of preparedness is carried into every department on the nation, until everyone has a chance to be well born, well nourished, rightly educated, intelligent and serviceable to the country at all times. Strike against all ordinances and laws and institutions that continue the slaughter of peace and the cruelty of war. Strike against war, for without you no battles can be fought. Strike against manufacturing scrap and gas bombs and all other tools of murder. Strike against preparedness that means death and misery to millions of human beings. Be not dumb, obedient slaves in an army of destruction. Be heroes in an army of construction. 🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼 Strike Against War

Speech by Helen Keller at Carnegie Hall, New York City - January 5, 1916) To begin with, I have a word to say to my good friends, the editors, and others who are moved to pity me. Some people are grieved because they imagine I am in the hands of unprincipled persons who persuade me to adopt unpopular causes and make me the mouthpiece of their propaganda. Now let it be understood once and for all that I do not want their pity; I would not change places with one of them. I know what I am talking about. My sources of information are as good and reliable as anybody else's. I have papers and magazines from Engliand, France, Germany and Austria that I can read myself. Not all the editors I have met can do that. Quite a number of them have to take their French and German second hand. No, I will not depreciate the editors. They are an overworked, misunderstood class. Let them remember, though, that if I cannot see the fire at the end of their cigarettes, neither can they thread a needle in the dark. All I ask, gentlemen, is a fair field and no favour. I have entered the fight against preparedness and against the economic system under which we live. It is to be a fight to the finish, and I ask no quarter. All the machinery of the system has been set in motion. Above the complaint and din of the protest from the workers is heard the voice of authority. "Friends," it says, "fellow workmen, pattiots; your country is in danger! There are foes on all sides of us. There is nothing between us and our enemies except the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. Look at what has happened to Belgium. Consider the fate of Serbia. Will you murmur about low wages when your country, your very liberties, are in danger? What are the miseries you endure compared to the humiliation of having a victorious German army sail up the East River? Quit your grumbling, get busy and prepare to defend your firesides and your flag. Get an army, get a navy; be ready to meet the invaders like the loyal-hearted freeman you are." Will the workers walk into this trap? Will they be fooled again? I am afraid so. The people have always been amenable to oratory of this sort. The workers know they have no enemies except their masters. They know that their citizenship papers are no warrent for the safety of their wives and children. They know that honest sweat, persistent toil and years of struggle bring them nothing worth fighting for. Yet, deep down in their foolish hearts they believe they are a country. Oh, blind vanity of slaves ! The clever ones, up in the high places know how childish and silly the workers are. They know that if the government dresses them up in khaki and gives them a rifle and starts them off with a band and waving banners, they will go forth to fight valiantly for their own enemies. They are taught that brave men die for their country's honour. What a price to pay for a vague idea - the lives of millions of young men; other millions crippled and blinded for life; existence made horrible for still more millions of human being; the achievement and legacy of generations swept away in a moment - and nobody better off for all the misery ! This terrible sacrifice would be comprehensible if the thing you die for and call country fed, clothed, housed and warmed you, educated and cherished your children. I think the workers are the most unselfish of the children of man; they toil and live and die for other people's country, other people's continents, other people's liberties and other people's happiness ! The workers have no liberties of their own; they are not free when they are compelled to work twelve or ten or eight hours a day. They are not free when they are ill paid for their exhausting toil. They are not free when their children must labour in mills and factories or strave, and when their women may be driven by poverty to lives of shame. They are not free when they are clubbed and imprisoned because they go on strike for a raise of wages and for the basic justice that is their right as human beings.

std. 12 Unit:6 Read:1 Strike Against War 🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺

Glossary: ========== pit - hole, ditch bits - pieces anthill - mound (heap of clay) made by ants, રાફડો arduous - difficult, laborious steep - sharp vertical slope cliffe - steep rock clear away - to remove (something) from an area foothold - area of rock where one can safely put one's foot while climbing amazing - surprising, astonishing creature - living being chewed up - crushed ferocious - merciless, barbarous swallow - gulp down took to - started, began domesticate - tame indolent - lazy relish - enjoy, savour ambush - attack abduct - carry off compelled - forced drudgery - labour work on the move - wandering devour - eat, consume flee - run away from a place of danger, escape 🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼 Ants

The most ferocious kind of of ants are the 'driver' ants of Africa. They have no fixed home but are always on the move. They are completely blind, but they march in long lines, many millions along, and they devour any animal that happens to be in their path. Even large animals like tigers and elephants live in fear of them. Often if a python, unable to move after swallowing his dinner, happens to be in the path of the marching lines, then these creatures eat both the python and the animal in its stomach. The villagers of Africa tell stories about babies who have been eaten by ants and these stories may well be true. When an army of the driver ants enters a house, the people flee into the forest and stay there until the ants have passed. When the people come back, they find that every insect and spider in the house has been cleared away !

The following behaviour was noticed by a scientist who was making a study of ants. A number of ants were down in a pit, where they had killed some flies and other insects for food. The ants began fetching the small bits of these insects up to their anthill. This was arduous work for them. The sides of the pit were steep and, considering the size of the ants, the loads they were carrying were very heavy. It was as if a group of men were carrying a weight of two hundred pounds each, and climbing a cliff at the same time. The ants immediately organized the work in this way while some were carrying up the bits of insects, the others went in front and cleared away any sand or small stone that obstructed the way. At some points where it was difficult to get a foothold, these other ants would position themselves in such a way that the ants carrying the loads could easily climb over them. Near the top of the pit, however, there was a small part of the way which was completely smooth and steep. Here there were no footholds. The ants came up to these points and there their progress stopped. It seemed that, after all, they had been defeated. Of the many ants which tried to climb this part, only one reached the top. This one was immediately met by a number of ants from the anthill, to whom it conveyed a message. And now an amazing thing happened. The ants at the top began climbing down into the pit backward, each holding the tail end of another ant in front. In this way an ant-chain was soon formed which slowly dropped down the steep side. When it reached the ants waiting with their loads, they easily climbed up the chain and came out at the top. Such behaviour, showing the adeptness of ants, has been noticed and studied by many. Now science has discovered some things about ant life which seem to show that the intelligence of these tiny creatures is very close to human intelligence. Not all scientists concede to this view, but you may look at some of these facts and form your own opinion. There are ants that do 'farming'. You may know that it was a big leap for human progress when man gave up being a full-time hunter and took to farming. Seemingly, the umbrella ants of South America have taken the same step in their small way ! They are called by that name because they are often seen carrying large pieces of leaf over their heads like umbrellas. They take these pieces of leaf to their nests, where they chew them up nicely. Afterwards they make beds of these chewed-up leaves. On these beds grow a kind of fungus, which is the food of ants. Then there are ants that domesticate 'cows' and 'milk' them ! What we have called 'cow' are a kind of greenfly. These are found on rose leaves and on the leaves of beans. They give out a sweet, honey-like liquid which the ants relish a lot. So the ants take these greenflies to their nests and keep them there. They feed them, protect them from their enemies; and they 'milk' them, pressing their sides gently and making them give out their honey. Ants, we are told, play games, nurse their sick and bury their dead. They see that each one in the nests does its share of work, and that no one is allowed to be indolent. All this suggests that ants have a highly developed social sense and perhaps some system of government. There are ants that keep other ants as slaves. One such type is a powerful red ant which is found in Europe. Their slaves are taken from a type of black ant which is smaller in size. When the red ants want slaves, they ambush the nests of the black ants and abduct some of their eggs. When these eggs hatch in the red ants' nests, the black ants which come out are treated as slaves. From their birth they are taught to obey. They are compelled to drudgery - they have even to carry about their masters on their backs. How surprisingly human !

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WhatsApp Active English 4 💚💚💚💚💚💚💚 https://chat.whatsapp.com/G8CfF70AHwB1n1G2HskuZD 💚💚💚💚💚💚💚 99789 99990

Glossary: ========== funeral - ceremony held immediately before burial or cremation whisper - speak softly see her in the beyond - meet her after death bier - a wooden frame on which the corpse is kept radiant - glowing, bright quibbling - arguing or raising objections about an insignificant manner flush - a reddening of the face caused by intense emotion, turn red petty - insignificant, trivial intervene - mediate, get involved to resolve conflict quip - make a witty remark reprimand - scold bear the brunt - tolerate whoosh out - making a soft sound like wind impressionable - easily influenced provoke - cause anger parade - walk proudly scoop - embrace someone to protect and express warmth thrash - beat to get one's way with - make others do as one wishes, વાત મનાવવી barely audible - too soft a voice to be heard wager - bet belongings - possessions, things cart away - take away immersion - releasing of something into water pay heed to - pay attenion to damn - bad (used for cursing) taken aback - shocked, surprised intonation - rise and fall in pitch curled up - rounded dissociative personality - a mental irregularity in a person's thoughts, memories, feelings, actions or sense of identity morphing - transforming from one image to another unburdened - relieved stunned - shocked dhoti - saree (in Punjabi) 🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼 The Adjustment

He talked to Nana at length - for hours. Most of the time, Nana kept quiet. He did not answer most of Dr Kamble's queries. But when he did, he spoke like Nana normally did and in his own voice. Something else became evident too : to one of the numerous questions that Dr Kamble asked him, he said, 'This only she can answer. I will ask her when she comes.' Dr Kamble shot back, 'Where has she gone?' The ends of his lips curled up a little in a smile, 'Oh.... she doesn't really ever tell me her whereabouts.' When Nana left, Dr Kamble said, 'He does not perceive your Nani as dead. He has begun to live a double life. In fact there's more of her and less of him. He has begun to think of himself as Nani. Whatever happens, it happens to her. She is the one who needs to be fed. She is the one who feels thirsty. She is the one who feels the pain. And it is she who takes the medicines. He only swallows the pills on her behalf.' I drove the good doctor back to his home. He said that Nana was suffering from a sort of dissociative personality disorder. The condition was little understood, he said, and there was no sure cure for it. He said, 'We will keep at it, do our best. But at your Nana's age, that kind of recovery is nearly impossible.' As I was about to leave, he asked me, "Tell me one thing, how does it make any difference to you whether he is Nana or thinks himself to be Nani? How does it change anything whether he eats raita by staying your Nana or refuses to eat raita by morphing into your Nani? Let him live his life any way he wants to.' I was late coming back home, but I did feel quite unburdened and a lot less worried by what Dr Kamble had said. I thought the way Nana had made his adjustments with Nani, we too should make adjustments with him. I reached home. When I walked into Nana's room to wake him up, I found him sleeping in Nani's bed. I lifted the blanket to wake him up. I was stunned. He was sleeping in Nani's dhoti and blouse. 🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼 The Adjustment

It was a mistake not to take Nana, our grandfather, to the funeral of our grandmother, our Nani. 'Go, take her away.... whisper into her ears that I too am on the way, not far behind; tell her I will see her in the beyond.' With heavy hearts, we hoisted Nani's bier over our shoulders. I turned to look, just once, and found Nana stepping away from the balcony into the room, pulling the door shut after him. He had lived with Nani for half a century, seen her radiant face every day of those years. He must have been what, about eighty-five, and yet he would find something to grumble at everything Nani did. He would keep quibbling with her, as if they were two people who had just married in the first flush of love and were still discovering each other. At times a petty quarrel would push them into long silence. They would stop talking to each other for days together. When we would try to intervene, all Nana would quip, 'It happens, son; it happens.... it takes time to adjust to each other.' It was fun listening to him talk. Mother would always reprimand us, 'You people provoke him and my mother has to bear the brunt.' Her mother means our Nani. And Nani would whoosh out a few words together from her toothless mouth, 'Be grateful that I gave you two grandsons.... now for the love of God, just shut up !' My brother and I were at a very young, impressionable age when our father married a second time. He would often arrogantly parade into the house with his new wife. Mother was helpless. There was nothing she could do about it, but Nani fought with her, and scooped the two of us into her arms and brought us into her house, saying, 'You want to rot here, do so..... But I am not letting my grandchildren stay here to get thrashed by their stepmother.' If anyone got her way with Nana, it was Nani. She would tell it to his face, 'You will regret it the day I die. You don't speak with the mother of these two children. They are also not going to talk to you. You will sit all by yourself in the balcony and bathe in the sun and your own loneliness.' Nana would say, barely audibly, 'I am older than you. You just wait and watch who's going to go first, you or I?' She would simply say, 'Yes, you will see. Just watch !' And Nani really did leave before him. Nana became all the more irritable now as if he had lost a wager. For a few days he took out his anger on his food. He would push away his plate and say, "Tell her I don't want to eat !" He imprisoned himself in the bedroom. We removed a few of Nani's belongings to make the room liveable for Nana but he did not let us cart away Nani's bed. In a dry, hollow coarse voice, he said, 'Let it be.... where else is she going to sleep?' The day we had to take Nani's ashes away for immersion, that day too Nana stayed locked in the room. When I went in, I found him sitting on her bed. He just touched the urn and said, "Take him away ..... all my life he just kept fighting with me.' The shift was gradual. I did not pay much heed to it that first day but later it became more evident. Another day I caught him taking Nani's cough syrup. He was measuring it by the capful, exactly the way Nani used to. I asked him, 'What's that you are doing?' 'What am I supposed to do then.... this damn cough just doesn't let up!' Exactly the same turn of phrase that Nani would have used. He paused, threw me a look and said, 'When this bottle gets over, get me a new one.' I was a little taken aback. I had never heard him coughing. But this was nothing compared to the shock he gave me a few days later. I told him, 'Nana, let's go to a salon. You need a haircut.' I insisted, 'If you don't want to go, then I will call a barber home.' He did not even bother to look at me this time. He began to shake his head, 'No, no, he will kill me. He does not like my hair cut short.... he will never approve!' His intonation was nasal, exactly like Nani's. It seemed as if it was Nani who was speaking. I moved back, a little worried. I had a friend, Dr K.D. Kamble, a psychiatrist. I called him over.

std. 12 Unit: 4 Read:1 The Adjustment 🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼

Glossary: disrupt - interrupt gradually - finally module - section invoke - appeal to complicated - complex rep. - short form of representative 🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼 Can you install LOVE?

Customer Service Rep. : Can you install LOVE? Customer : I can do that. I'm not very technical, but I think I am ready to install now. What do I do first? Customer Service Rep. : The first step is to open your HEART. Have you located your HEART ma'am? Customer : Yes, I have, but there are several programmes running right now. Is it okay to install while they are running? Customer Service Rep. : What programmes are running ma'am? Customer : Let me see...... I have PASTHURT.EXE, LOWESTEEM.EXE, GRUDGE.EXE and RESENTMENT.COM running right now. Customer Service Rep. : No problem. LOVE will automatically erase PASTHURT.EXE from your current operating system. It may remain in the permanent memory, but it will no longer disrupt other programmes. LOVE will eventually overwrite LOWESTEEM.EXE with a module of its own called HIGHESTEEM.EXE. However, you have to completely turn off GRUDGE.EXE and RESENTMENT.COM. Those programmes prevent LOVE from being properly installed. Can you turn those off ma'am? Customer : I don't know how to turn them off. Can you tell me how? Customer Service Rep. : My pleasure. Go to your start menu and invoke FORGIVENESS.EXE. Do this as many times as necessary until GRUDGE.EXE and RESENTMENT.COM have been completely erased. Customer : Okay, I'm done. LOVE has started installing itself automatically. Is that normal? Customer Service Rep. : Yes, it is. You should receive a message that says it will reinstall for the life of your HEART. Do you see that message? Customer : Yes, I do. Is it completely installed? Customer Service Rep. : Yes, but remember that you have only the base programme. You need to begin connecting to other HEARTS in order to get the upgrades. Customer : Oops.... I have an error message already. What should I do? Customer Service Rep. : What does the message say? Customer : It says "ERROR 412 - PROGRAM NOT RUN ON INTERNAL COMPONENTS". What does that mean? Customer Service Rep. : Don't worry ma'am, that's a common problem. It means that the LOVE programme is set up to run on external HEARTS but has not yet been run on your HEART. It is one of those complicated programming things, but in non-technical terms it means you have to "LOVE" your own machine before it can "LOVE" others. Customer : So what should I do? Customer Service Rep. : Can you find the directory called "SELF-ACCEPTANCE"? Customer : Yes, I have it. Customer Service Rep. : Excellent, you are getting good at this. Customer : Thank you. Customer Service Rep. : You're welcome. Click on the following files and then copy them to the "MYHEART" directory: FORGIVESELF.DOC, SELFESTEEM.TEXT, REALIZEWORTH.TXT, and GOODNESS.DOC. The system will overwrite any conflicting file and begin patching any faulty programming. Also, you need to delete SELFCRITIC.EXE from all directories, and then empty your recycle bin afterwards to make sure it is completely gone and never comes back. Customer : Got it. Hey! My HEART is filling up with really neat files. SMILE.MPG is playing on my monitor right now and it shows that WARMTH.COM, PEACE.EXE, and CONTENTMENT.COM are copying themselves all over my HEART ! Customer Service Rep. : Then LOVE is installed and running. You should be able to handle it from here. One more thing before I go..... Customer : Yes? Customer Service Rep. : LOVE is freeware. Be sure to give it and its various modules to everybody you meet. They will in turn share it with other people and they will return some really neat modules back to you. Customer : I will. Thank you for your help.