THE STRUGGLES OF OUR LIFE

Once upon a time a daughter complained to her father that her life was miserable and that she didn’t know how she was going to make it.

She was tired of fighting and struggling all the time. It seemed just as one problem was solved, another one soon followed.

Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire.

Once the three pots began to boil, he placed potatoes in one pot, eggs in the second pot and ground coffee beans in the third pot. He then let them sit and boil, without saying a word to his daughter.

The daughter, moaned and impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing. After twenty minutes he turned off the burners.

He took the potatoes out of the pot and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. He then ladled the coffee out and placed it in a cup.

Turning to her, he asked. “Daughter, what do you see?”

“Potatoes, eggs and coffee,” she hastily replied.

“Look closer” he said, “and touch the potatoes.” She did and noted that they were soft.

He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg.

Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. Its rich aroma brought a smile to her face.

“Father, what does this mean?” she asked.

He then explained that the potatoes, the eggs and coffee beans had each faced the same adversity-the boiling water. However, each one reacted differently. The potato went in strong, hard and unrelenting, but in boiling water, it became soft and weak.

The egg was fragile, with the thin outer shell protecting its liquid interior until it was put in the boiling water. Then the inside of the egg became hard.

However, the ground coffee beans were unique. After they were exposed to the boiling water, they changed the water and created something new.

“Which one are you?” he asked his daughter.

“When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a potato, an egg, or a coffee bean?”

Moral of the story: 

In life, things happen around us, things happen to us, but the only thing that truly matters is how you choose to react to it and what you make out of it. Life is all about leaning, adopting and converting all the struggles that we experience into something positive.

The sound of music

1. Why was Evelyn Glennie going to face a bigger challenge at the prestigious Royal Academy of Music in London?
   Evelyn Glennie was full of passion for music but performing at the prestigious Royal Academy of Music in London was a challenge for her for two reasons: in the first place she was deaf and in the second, she was brought up on a Scottish farm. It is a challenge for a deaf village girl to compete with other singers who have perfect hearing.
2. What do you know about Evelyn’s gradual loss of hearing?
   When Evelyn was eight years old, she was waiting to play the piano at a function. Her mother Isabel Glennie noticed that Evelyn had not heard the organizers call out her name loudly and clearly.
3. How did Evelyn lose her hearing?
   Evelyn’s hearing impairment happened as a result of gradual nerve damage.
4. What did Evelyn’s school advise her parents for her future?
   The headmistress advised that she should be fitted with hearing aids and sent to a school for the deaf.

THE ADVENTURES OF TOTO

1. How does Toto come to grandfather’s private zoo?

A. The writer’s grandfather liked to collect animals and had made a zoo at home. One day, he saw a red - coloured monkey tied to a trough with a tonga driver. He liked the monkey and wanted to add it to his collection. He bought Toto from the tonga driver for a sum of five rupees.

2. “Toto was a pretty monkey.” In what sense is Toto pretty?

A. The writer says that Toto was pretty. He had bright, shining eyes which were full of mischief. His teeth were like pearls. He had a long tail which was like a third hand for him. The writer’s grandfather felt that a tail added to the beauty of an animal. So, Toto was thought to be a pretty animal.

3. Why does grandfather take Toto to Saharanpur and how? Why does the ticket collector insist on calling Toto a dog?

A. Grandfather took Toto along with himself to Saharanpur because as he was mischievous, it was not safe to leave him alone at home. A bag made of strong canvas material was arranged. Some straw was placed in it. Toto was placed inside the bag and the bag was sealed with the zipper. 
The ticket collector did not accept grandfather’s claim that Toto was not a dog. He called it a dog and charged a ticket fee for it because only dogs were allowed to travel on trains. If Toto had to travel by train, then, he would have to be termed a dog.

4. How does Toto take a bath? Where has he learnt to do this? How does Toto almost boil himself alive?

A. Toto would check the temperature of the water by inserting his hand in it. Then he would step into the tub, one foot at a time. Finally, he would sit in it, with his face out. Then he would rub soap on his body. When the water became cold, he would jump out and run to the stove in the kitchen to dry himself. 
He had learnt this way of bathing from the writer. 
On day, Toto jumped into a kettle of water kept on the stove for boiling as he found it warm enough for a bath. As the water grew hotter, he thought of ascending but the cold weather made him go back into the kettle. Toto kept on doing this for a while till he was spotted by the grandmother. She pulled him out of the kettle in time or else he would have boiled himself that day.

5. Why does the author say, “Toto was not the sort of pet we could keep for long”?

A. The author says that Toto was not the kind of pet that they could keep for long because he was extremely mischievous. He destroyed many things - he tore the wallpapers, clothes and curtains. He broke dishes too. The family could not afford all this and so, decided to get rid of Toto.