Shirley Toulson - A Bio Sketch

Shirley Toulson was born on 20th May 1924 in Henley-on-Thames, England as the daughter of Douglas Horsfall Dixon and Marjorie Brown. She had a huge passion on writing and was greatly influenced y her father who was a writer too. She secured a B.A on Literature from Brockenhurst College in London in the year 1953. Shortly, she took writing as career but also served as the editor for many magazines in meantime. She married Alan Brownjohn on 6th February 1960. They had three children - Janet Sayers, Ian Toulson and Steven brownjohn. ut after nine years they divorced on March 1969. Celtic Christianity influenced her greatly that most of her major works like "Celtic Alternative" in 1987 and "Celtic Year" in 1993 were on that topic. But these works indeed made her more famous. 

The Photograph by Shirley Toulson - Extra Questions

1) How does the poet contracts the girls terrible transience with the scene?

Ans: All the girls standing at the each have a terribly transient existence. They are mortal and suffer physical change with the passage of time. THe mother's sweet face and her smile has already disappeared for the last twenty or thirty years. But the vast sea remains unchanged or seemed to have less changed in their comparison.

2) "Both thrive with the laboured ease of loss" Describe the ironical situation.

Ans: Both the mother and the daughter suffer a sense of loss. The mother has lost her care free childhood. She can't have these moments of enjoyment again that she once experienced at the beach. She can't be a sweet smiling girl of twelve again. This is considered as the poet's loss too. She can't see the smiling face and experience the laughter again in life. The irony of the situation is that both of them struggle to ear the loss with tolerable ease.

3) Explain the line " the sea holiday as a past, mine is her laughter , Time spares none" .

Ans: Gone are the childhood days of mother and the sea holiday has become her past, the photograph flashes back to the scene that was captured about 30 years ago. Gone is a carefree laughter of the mother which was love at one time. But now, the laughter of her mother has eventually become a thing of past for the poet. She has silently resigned herself to the fate.

Questions to work out 

Short answer type questions

1. What is the significance of the ‘cardboard’ frame?
2. What tone has the poetess adopted in the poem?
3. What comparison between the sea and human beings has been drawn in the second stanza?
4. What emotions do you associate with the mother looking at the photograph?
5. What emotions would you associate with Shirley as she looks at the photograph?
6. Why does the poetess seem to have nothing to say about the ‘circumstance’?
7. What is silenced and how has it silenced the poetess?

Long answer type questions

The Photograph by Shirley Toulson - Question & Answers

1) What does the word ‘cardboard’ denote in the poem? Why has this word been used?


Ans: The cardboard means a very stiff and thick paper, here the cardboard is a part of the frame that keeps the photograph intact. It's use in poem is ironical  It keeps the photograph of that 12 year old girl safe who herself was terribly transient  The player's mother had died some years ago.

2) What has the camera captured?
Ans: The camera had captured all the three girls alive in it. It has captured the pretty face of the poet's mother who as a girl of twelve at that time. It has also captured the smiling faces of the two girl cousins Betty and Dolly. They are holding the hands of the poet's mother.

3) What has not changed over the years? Does this suggest something to you?
Ans: The sea has not changed over the years. It rings out the transient nature and its object. Time spares none. The pretty faces and the feet of the three girls are terribly transient or moral when compared to the ageless and unchangeable sea. 

4) The poet’s mother laughed at the snapshot. What did this laugh indicate?
Ans: The poet's mother laughs at the snapshot which was taken years ago. In the photograph, she as well as her two little cousins stood at the each. She laughed at the ay all of them were dressed up for the beach. Perhaps they looked funny. Their laughter indicated the youthful spirit.

5) What is the meaning of the line “Both wry with the laboured ease or loss”
Ans: Both the mother and the poet suffered a great sense of loss. The mother has lost her childhood innocence and joyful spirit that the photograph has captured some years ago. For the poet, the smile of her mother has become thing of the past. She has silently resigned to her faith. Ironically both labour to bear their loss with ease. 

The Photograph by Shirley Toulson - Chapter Summary

Short Synopsis

A photograph descries 3 stages. In the first stage, the photograph shows the poet's mother standing at the each enjoying her holiday ith her two girl cousins. She was 12 or so at that time. The second stage takes us twenty or thirty years later. The motehr would laugh at the way she and her cousins Betty and Dolly were dressed up for each holidays. In the third stage, the poet remembers the mother with  a heavy heart. The photograph revives a nostargic feeling in the poet.

Brief Summary

A Book by Shirley Toulson

The poet is looking at her mother's photograph which is indeed an old one. With it she can see how her mother looked when she was a little girl of twelve. THe photo shows her on  a beach with her two girl cousins ho are younger than her, holding her hand. It might have een windy at that time that their hair was flying on their faces when the uncle took the photograph. All the three as smiling through their flying hair. Looking at the photograph, the poet says that her mother had a sweet face, but it was a time before the poet was born. The sea was washing their feet. The poet says that the sea has changed only a little but change has come about who's feet it was washing.
                                       After 30 or 40 years, the mother would take out the photograph and take a look at it. By that time, she was married and had a daughter. She would laugh a little and says "Look at Betty and Dolly, see how they have dressed for the beach". By now, she can only remember those days. A huge change has come about her and she is no longer that small innocent girl of twelve.
                                      After some years, the poet's mother dies. Now the poet remembers her mother's laughter, for her it is a thing of past.

Sets - Chapter Summary

Sets

In our daily life, we have to deal with the collection of objects of one kind or the other.
Eg: 

• The collection of even natural numbers less than 12. (2,4,6,8,10)
• The collection of vowels in English alphabets. (a,e,i,o,u)
• The collection of well known mathematicians in the world might not be the same for everyone. So it is not a set.

Therefore we can just define set as - A set is a well-defined collection of objects.

Sets can be represented by two ways: 

• Roster or Tabular Form - All the elements of a set are listed separated by commas and are enclosed within braces { }.Elements are not repeated generally.  Examples: A={1,2,3,4,5} or B={5,10,15,....}     

• Set builder Form - In set-builder form, set is denoted by stating the properties that its members satisfy.

Units and Measurements - Chapter Summary

Measurement

It is a comparison process used to measure a physical quantity to find out how many times the standard amount of that physical quantity is present in the given situation.

Unit

It is an arbitrarily chosen standard which is accepted by the society in terms of which other physical quantities of similar nature can be expressed.

Measurement - Numerical Value X Unit

Physical Quantities

They can be classified into:

• Fundamental Quantities
• Derived Quantities

Fundamental Quantities (Basic)

They are quantities that cannot e resolved to further quantities. There are seven fundamental Quantities

• Length
• Mass
• Time
• Temperature
• Electric Current
• Luminous Intensity
• Amount of Matter

Portrait of a Lady by Khushwant Singh - Chapter Summary

Story in a Nutshell

In this story, Khushwant Singh draws a pen picture of his grand mother. He describes how he had spent his childhood with her in the village. He also describes the change that came in the relationship in the city. Ultimately, he describes the moving scene of her death.

Brief Summary

Khushwant Singh draws here an interesting portrait of his grandmother. He presents her as a tender, loving and deeply religious old lady. Singh says that his grandmother was an old woman. She was so old that her face was wrinkled that at the present it was difficult to believe she would ever had been young and pretty. Her hair was white as snow. She had a little stoop in her back. She could be seeing reciting her rosary all the time. The author says that "she was like the winter landscape in the mountains and exponce of pure white serenity breathing peace and contentment."
                                                          A picture of author's grandfather was hung on the wall. He appeared too old and it was that he ever had a wife. He appeared to have only lots and lots of grandchildren. Singh was the only child at that time. His parents had gone to live in the city leaving him behind the village under the care of his grandmother. She would get him ready for school. And would also feed him with Chappathi. The School as attached with a temple. All the children sat in the verandah reciting alphabets while his grandmother is engaged reading holy scriptures. Finally in the evening, the author and the grandmother would walk back home feeding the dogs.