Anticipatory anti-colonial writing in R.K. Narayan's Swami and Friends and Mulk Raj Anand's Untouchable

This article uses the term “anticipatory anti-colonial writing” to discuss the workings of time in R.K. Narayan’s Swami and Friends and Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable. Both these first novels were published in 1935 with the support of British literary personalities (Graham Greene and E.M. Forster respectively) and both feature young protagonists who, in contrasting ways, are engaged in Indian resistance to colonial rule. This study examines the difference between Narayan’s local, though ironical, resistance to the homogenizing temporal demands of empire and Anand’s awkwardly modernist, socially committed vision. I argue that a form of anticipation that explicitly looks forward to decolonization via new and transnational literary forms is a crucial feature of Untouchable that is not found in Swami and Friends, despite the latter’s anti-colonial elements. Untouchable was intended to be a “bridge between the Ganges and the Thames” and anticipates postcolonial negotiations of time that critique global inequalities and rely upon the multidirectional global connections forged by modernism

Reminiscences of Faiz Ahmed 'Faiz'

Shy, even-faced young man, with curly hair, his big eyes seemed to take things in to brood upon. He said little. He moved slowly. But, suddenly, during a meal, or when passing one by from one room to another, he would recite a verse either of some older poet, or the beginning of a new one of his own.</jats:p

AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON PARTIAL REPLACEMENT OF CEMENT BY GGBS

Concrete is the most world widely used construction material with about 6 billion tones being produced every year. In terms of per capita consumption, it comes next to water. The extraction of raw materials and emission of CO2 during cement manufacture cause great damage to the environmental sustainability. So, it becomes the need to reduce cement consumption. It can be done by partially replacing the cement by supplementary materials without compromising with strength and durability characteristics of the concrete. These materials may be naturally occurring, industrial wastes or by-products that are less energy extensive. These pozzolanic materials when combined with calcium hydroxide, exhibits cementitious properties. Most commonly used pozzolanic materials are fly ash, metakaolin, silica fume, ground granulated blast furnce slag (GGBS). It needs to examine the admixtures performance when blended with concrete so as to ensure required strength, durability and reduced lifecycle cost. The present paper focuses on investigating characteristics of M35 grade concrete with partial replacement of cement with GGBS by 30%, 40% and 50%. The cubes and beams are tested for compressive strength and flexural strength respectively. From the experimental investigation, it was found that as the GGBS replacement level increased the workability increased. Also, both compressive strength and flexural strength of concrete increased as the GGBS content increased up to 40% but they decreased as the GGBS content increased above 40%. It was also found that both maximum compressive strength and maximum flexural strength of the concrete were achieved at 40% GGBS replacement level. So, the optimum content of GGBS for compressive strength and flexural strength is 40%. Keywords – Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag, Pozzolana, Compressive Strength, Flexural Strength, Ordinary Portland Cement</jats:p

Aesop's Fables

Ninety-five fables in a book distinguished by different approaches to printing than we are used to. Thus the cover has Aesop's Fables stamped on it twice besides the title, and the author's name appears likewise twice. The T of C follows different standards than ours for capitalization, apparently capitalizing all nouns and some verbs. The T of C names for the stories do not always match the title-like phrases at the top of the texts. There are printer's errors, like the paragraph error on 4 and the frequent problems with quotation marks. Until just before the book's end, there is one fable to a page. The half-dozen simple illustrations have their own charm, like that for MSA on 103. An onlooking hare asks the fox in FG why he cannot get the grapes and receives the answer They are sour (9). Han seems to be the animals' favorite exclamation! The battered king lion, kicked by the donkey, bids him go and he does (13)! The dog gives the wolf's speech on 14! This fable actually turns out to be a new variation, since the wolf asks the dog not to bark when the former comes into the flock; when he gets in, he first eats the dog. The wolf in sheep's clothing just happens to be the one chosen by the shepherd for supper (17). Jupiter here becomes The Great God. The version of The Cat and the Parrot (28) is one of the better versions I have seen; it climaxes in The family does not like your voice as it likes mine. The She-Pigeon and the Crow is new to me (31). The goats in the cave do not butt the bull, but they ask him why he is a coward (34). Am I missing something in the moral on 42: The poor man generally finds that a change of Master, means exchanging one master for another? The dog in DS is crossing the river in a boat (47)! CJ's moral follows James in its ambivalence but adds a new twist: The cock was sensible because he wanted to eat, but a woman would say it is better to have a jewel, rather than food (54). Here is a good one-liner from the horse to his keeper: Give me less of your praise and more of my corn (55). When the fox loses his fear of the lion, the lion eats him in one gulp (56)! The creaking wheel story is told with the driver insulting the creaking wheels. The moral? Those in authority think they are always right (57). Mother finishes her remark to the moon by saying You look better naked (60). SW is a bet over whichever of them made a traveller take off his tunic (66). The detoothed, declawed lion in love runs away before he can be hit (67). Not only does the horse lose his freedom to get revenge on the stag, but the man does not even pause to kill the stag once he gets mounted (75). The weak old lion asks animals to come in order to clean his house (86). A girl, not a boy, hears the lecture while drowning (92). The moral? One must help to relieve a suffer before giving advice. The mother of the sick kite asks which gods she can turn to, since she has robbed the altars of all of them (98). The moral for the boy with the nettles is Do baldly what you have to do (99). The last fable, without acknowledgement of Lessing, is his Aesop and the Ass. One could see in this book how fables can easily get off the track!Mulk Raj Anan