029. Son From America. Isaac Singer Story. Reintroduced By P S Remesh Chandran

029.

Son From America. Isaac Singer Story. Reintroduced By P S Remesh Chandran
 
Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum

 
First published: 11th Jul 2011
 

The Jews are a race hunted down and persecuted through centuries and generations. In whichever countries they migrated and escaped to, they did well and made a decent living. Their endurance before endless adversities owes to the simplicity in their lives. They even reached Cochin Kerala centuries earlier in quest of a quiet life. Now they have their home land to where they are returning, again to fight for the existence of their nation. Won’t the world leave them alone? 

However severe they persecute me, I will not leave my soul alone, nor leave it polluted. 

Comm. Joselewicz dies in the military uprising in 1867.

The Son From America is a short story by the famous Jewish writer Isaac Singer who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1978. He usually wrote about the lives of Jews who lost their homeland and settled in various countries. Among such people, an old man named Berl and his wife Berlcha settled in the peaceful village of Lentshin in Poland. Lentshin was such remote and far from civilization that city news rarely reached there. The village had small thatched houses, almost all the inhabitants were farmers and there were no thieves. Like the other inhabitants, Berl and Berlcha led a simple, humble and satisfied life. They had half an acre of land, a cow, a goat and some chicken. They all lived in that little hut together.

The son from America finally returning to his native village Lentshin. 

Inside Cochin Synagogue in Kerala, built in 1568.

Most of the young men of the village had gone abroad. Many had gone to America, including Berl's son Samuel. He had been in America for forty years and regularly sending money. Berl had cashed it, but was not spending it, as the family had no need of it. He kept the money inside an old boot in his home. One day his son Samuel unexpectedly arrived from America after forty long years. He had sent a telegram which did not reach the village. Berl and Berlcha were much excited and delighted to see their son. Their neighbours came in flocks to see how he looked like, but did not accept any of his gifts. None of them needed anything. 

Rustic tranquillity of a Polish village untouched by the pollutants of riches. 

Cochin Jewish Inscription in Kerala in India.

Samuel was shocked to see the simplicity of his home. It was a simple thatched hut with barely room enough for all. The cow, the goat, the chicken and his parents all lived together in the same room peacefully. Life untouched by the pollutants of riches allows for and provides for the co-existence of man and bird and beast. Samuel had expected a huge house in place of the old hut. He asked his father why the large sums of money sent to him were not expended. His father replied that he did not need it and that they were satisfied and self- sufficient with the earnings from their land, cow, goat and chicken. Samuel then knew that the rustic tranquillity of this Polish village would never be touched by the pollutants of riches such as ostentation, vanity, pride, splendour and luxury. Even then he had to account for his decisions regarding the future of his village as an envoy from an organization.

 

In old age one needs praying alone, and may be said to be living so long as he remains healthy. 

A simple Jewish home in a village in Poland.

Samuel had great plans for his village. The young men from Lentshin Village in America had formed a ‘Lentshin Society’ in New York. They had all prospered well in America and had amassed a huge amount in their society as their contributions, to be utilized later solely for their home village in Poland. They had many plans for the welfare and development of their home village. It was carrying their huge amounts of money that Samuel arrived as their representative. Now he is in a dilemma. Their village seemed to need nothing. There were only old people there. An old man Samuel met in the Synagogue told him that in old age one needed praying alone, and that one may be said to be living so long as he remains healthy. They did pray and did have health. So Samuel intimated his intention to build a new Synagogue for the village and a home for the aged. But he was dissuaded, as the existing Synagogue was enough and they all had their homes.

The opulence of imperial persecution retaliated with rustic simplicity in life. 

Kazimierz the Great and the Jews, a 19th century painting.

Samuel brought money, but his village had no use of it which was his dilemma. Such simple, satisfied and self sufficient a rustic life strongly reminds us of the characteristics of a happy life as described by Alexander Pope in his poem The Ode On Solitude. One thing also is to be remembered here. The Jews were a race hunted through centuries and through generations. They were arrested, tortured, executed, transported, relocated and scattered throughout the world for no fault of their’s but for religious misconceptions of the world. In Russia, in Germany, in Poland: their hunting and persecution was continuous. Wherever they were scattered, this simplicity in life was what sustained them.

That mad dog that we called Hitler which sent millions to gas chambers and firing pits, not even sparing little children and old women. 

Transportation and re-location of Jews in 1939.

When at last a home was found for them, by the intervention of world nations, it was just like as island in the middle of a sea of hostilities. We know they laid plastic over bomb-burned soil, lorry-loaded fresh soil above it, planted crops and survived. They deserve the respect of mankind and human society for showing us the fine example of enduring relentless adverse living conditions and undeserved persecution from the political Brahmins of this world. That mad dog that we called Adolph Hitler sent millions of them to gas chambers and firing pits, not even sparing little children and old women. The world is duty-bound to help their nation and its people whom we all wronged.

It is time the Jews turn to discovering petrol from plant leaves so that their friends would stay. 

Jews in Poland lined up for identification.

It is particularly to be noted here that nations, people and political parties in this world are unstable and wavering in their opinions of and approach towards the Jews. The only nation that remained unwavering, stable and steady whatever may come and still remains so, devoted to their cause as earlier, is the United States of America which deserves praise, and which reflects the lofty principles upon which this nation was founded. It has now become a fashion to denounce and condemn the Jewish nation so that a few drops of precious oil could be secured. It is time the Jews turn to discovering petrol from plant leaves so that they can retain their friends.



___________________________ 
Pictures Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
___________________________


Dear Reader,
If you cannot access all pages of P.S.Remesh Chandran, Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum, kindly access them via this link provided here:
https://sites.google.com/site/timeuponmywindowsill/wiki-nut-articles
 

Tags

American Literature, English Literature, History Of Poland, Isaac Singer, Jewish Authors, Jews In Poland, Lentshin Village In Poland, Migration Of The Jews, P S Remesh Chandran, Reintroductions, Relocation Of Jews, Russian History, Sahyadri Books Bloom Books Trivandrum, Short Stories, Story, The Son From America, Transportation Of Jews

Comments

rama devi nina
11th Jul 2011 (#)
 
Congrats on your star page. This is well researched and presented with superb photos. I have visited that synagogue in Cochin a few times. Nice to see it written of here!

PSRemeshChandra
11th Jul 2011 (#)
 
Dear Rama Devi Nina,

It seems you have travelled through and visited almost all beautiful places which I very much wished to visit but never did. Thank you for going through the article and complimenting it. When I was a school boy, what I heard most was about the Palestine Refugees who lost their home land. It was their plight that kindled revolutionary spirits in me as I grew older. In my very early teens I wrote and published a long song Before The Dawn Rises (Prabhaathamunarum Munpe in Malayaalam) as I always wished to cherish in human minds the picture of the Palestinian Fighters destined to live in and move through the dark in forests, training more among them to perish for their cause, without leaving behind a trace of their very existence in this dear world. Within that time I had read and known much about the centuries-old flight and plight of the Jews and their connection with the decisions after the Second World War and with the Palestine problem. I sympathize with both these people who I think are my brothers. There were many famous Jewish Business Houses such as the S.Coder's and the Spencer's in Trivandrum. I know many of them were in Cochin also. When they all closed their businesses and returned to their homelands, many grieved as if family members were going away, for ever. I like to think that the Palestinians and the Jews will someday embrace each other and drink tea from the same samovar. Anyway Ibrahim and Abraham are but one and the same.

Meet the author
PSRemeshChandra
 
Editor of Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum. Author of several books in English and in Malayalam. And also author of Swan : The Intelligent Picture Book. 

026. Young Years Of Abraham Lincoln. Essay. P S Remesh Chandran

026.
  
Young Years Of Abraham Lincoln. Essay. P S Remesh Chandran

Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum

First published: 5th Jul 2011
  

Sponsorship, back support and resources of large industrial empires and business houses are needed now to make a person the head of a nation, and it is not a secret too. Elections are won or lost according to the skill and riches of supporting industrialists and businessmen. Things were not so till a few decades earlier. It was an era when people said 'my cause is greater than my birth.' 

Life of Lincoln a reminder of the height of political commitment and humanitarian elation from which we have fallen. 

Lincoln giving the Gettysburg speech in 1863.

When mighty nations arose out of chaos and struggles in the past centuries, the quality of statesmanship and dedication and loyalty of the candidate to his country and his men had been the deciding factor in determining his candidature and ascension to presidentship and captaincy. Poverty, manual labour, hard work and sympathy to others went into the making of such great men. The greatest modern day politician and statesman of the world, Abraham Lincoln, is remembered more as a lover and liberator of mankind than as a President of the Unites States of Americas. The life of Abraham Lincoln is a reminder of the height of political commitment, humanitarian elation and visionary insight from which we have fallen lately. This short article attempts to outline how his earlier years were spent and how this boy who read by the kitchen firelight assumed himself to be a ruthless political fighter. His boyhood years are presented here as he grew up strong and independent enough to fight the slave owners and the slave economy of his great continent fearlessly and mercilessly. 

A vast prairee of mountains, plains, rivers and bisons that became a motherland to multitudes from every part of the world. 

First reading of Proclamation of Emancipation. 1864.

The American Continent is one of the most fertile and vast regions in the world. Discovery of this new world attracted energetic and brave adventurers from almost all corners of the world. Whoever were being intolerably exploited, oppressed and suppressed in their native lands, if possible, escaped to this new world. Their hard work, determination and dedication are what erected this mighty nation as a pillar of democracy and a beacon of hope to the world. When we read and learn about the history of America, we will wonder how hard the bygone generations of this beautiful Promised Land strove to cherish the dream and ambition of realizing and materializing a land of equal opportunities and unquestionable democratic principles. People with lesser knowledge laugh, saying America is assuming the role of World Police. But people who have read about the evils of the world from which multitudes of people escaped and migrated to America to raise a nation and a policy of their own through the centuries know better. 

The rise of American timber meat and fur industry and the coming of Western Classics.  

Boy Lincoln reading by firelight.

People of those times engaged in mostly bison hunting and trapping for furs. Raising cattle also was one of their major engagements. Huge ranches came to be established as a result of vast stretches of available pasture land and limitless availability of free-roaming bison and buffalo which only needed to be roped. Logging also developed as a major industry that provided employment to millions of people. America supplied timber, meat and fur to many countries. American timber, meat and fur industries owe their origins to those times of adventure and migration. The magnificent life of the brave and bold people of those times constitutes a memorable part in English Literature also in the form of the Great Westerns written by Louis La Amour and the like. But a period of boom will not last. Land, and resources like bison raccoon beaver and trees, began to be less and less available and people began to move. In fact, movement of people across endless plains and along broad river basins in quest of a new life is the characteristic of this part of the American history.

The great march of the early American settlers to the west, across plains and along river basins. 

A saw and grist mill in Lincoln's time. Illinois.

When the early settlers of America began their great march to the West, new states were formed on their way, the earliest one among them being Kentucky. It was a beautiful state with dense forests, trees and far-stretching grass lands where Abraham Lincoln was born in a small farm and brought up to eight years. There his beloved mother taught him to read books, and in the evenings sat with him by the fireside telling him stories. Those were the unforgettable years of his primary education. Then the family moved further west, crossed the great Ohio River and settled in the newly formed state of Indiana which had no cities, towns and villages, but forests, forests and forests alone.

Agriculture, manual labour, walking, reading and education: The constituents of a brave world citizen. 

Lincoln's log cabin, now a national treasure.

Trees were cut, they cleared the forest and built an eighteen feet square log house which had a loft in the roof and that was Abe's bed. Even the eight year old Abe was given an axe to help in the work- the initial training which made Abe Lincoln, an Able Lincoln. This lonely family cleared the ground and planted corn, hunted game in the forest and caught fish from the rivers. After his hard work in the fields and forests, he found one or two hours daily to read books by the firelight, among which the Bible, John Banyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, Life of George Washington and Aesop's Fables were his favourites. He was an avid reader. When a school master came to live many miles away, young Lincoln and his sister daily walked this long distance to and fro to learn things. At his eleventh year his mother passed away and two years later his father presented them with a new mother who was kind and took care of the children extremely well.

A village where all had log cabins and all worked from morning till night. 

The neat village of Lincoln in New Salem.

Lincoln’s life has been summed up as 'From Log House to the White House' which is only a romantic statement far from reality. All people in his village had log houses. There were trees thick-packed everywhere. When ground had to be cleared for building a house, what will one do with the trees cut down from there? It cannot be moved to another tree-saturated spot. And timber was the natural and abundant building material available there. In fact, there were many beautiful log houses constructed there in his village. The doctor, school, post office, everything in the village was housed in log cabins. In one, once Lincoln ran a store which gained him an additional name, 'Honest Abe'. It was really the physical strength and free spirit he gained during those times that gained America a fearless President.

If trees were heard falling in the forest one after the other, everyone knew Abraham Lincoln was at work. 

Lincoln's neighbors in New Salem.

There have been questions on the tallness of Abraham Lincoln for which there has been only one logical answer- good food, hard labour and a clean environment. At seventeen, he was Six feet Four inches tall and he grew big and strong each day. Timber cutting was their livelihood and he cut more trees than any other person in his village a day. If in the forest trees were heard falling one after the other, people knew that Lincoln was at work. He was the prize-winning runner, jumper, swimmer and shooter in the village. Long walks in the hills and forests were his hobby. He hated to kill. Animals, birds, trees, rivers and snow, all shared his ardence. And he liked debates, arguments and talking and assembled his friends till midnight doing these things. Once he walked thirty four miles to hear a famous lawyer speak and see him setting free through his eloquence and oratory skills an innocent man accused of murder. It was then and there that the impressed Abe decided to make himself a lawyer. So in the woods he made imaginary speeches to the trees and birds, perfecting the skill. And thus his teen years were over.

Birth of a young man determined to make the world free of oppressors, suppressors, dictators and slave owners. 

The rapids and falls Lincoln's boat maneuvered.

But the World remember him for his two great acts, preventing the young United States from separation in a civil war and abolishing slavery as a guiding beacon to this world. It is true, the southern states in America had so many cotton plantations and depended much on the easily and cheaply available slave labour for the stability and balancing of their economy. It was also true that not all planters were as cruel and rude to their slaves as many. But there indeed was insufferable tyranny, neglect and torture in most quarters. And as a principle, the freedom of man, whether Negro, slave, African or any other began to be considered of paramount importance. Naturally abolition of slavery resulted in a civil war in which the young nation might have been torn and separated but for the strong political will of Lincoln. This course of historical events was made possible through an adventurous journey undertaken by Lincoln at twenty one, so it cannot be left out here. He with his friend following the business advice of his father undertook a One thousand Eight hundred mile journey in a small boat down the Mississippi which is one of the greatest rivers in this world. Their destination was New Orleans where they reached enduring rapids and human attacks on the way. There for the first time in his life he saw slave labourers working in the cotton plantations. Also he saw slave markets where people were auctioned, bargained and sold. The humiliation and pain he saw in the eyes of those girls, mothers, children and men being sold in auction in markets there made his determination to wipe out this human evil from the face of this earth for ever and to make this world free of oppressors, suppressors, dictators and slave owners, which in time culminated in the firm policy of his nation.

 
____________________________ 
Pictures Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
____________________________

Dear Reader,
If you cannot access all pages of P.S.Remesh Chandran, Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum, kindly access them via this link provided here:
https://sites.google.com/site/timeuponmywindowsill/wiki-nut-articles

Tags


Abraham Lincoln, America In The Making, American History, American Idol, American Literature, American Presidents, American Values, English Literature, Essayists, P S Remesh Chandran, Reintroductions, Sahyadri Books And Bloom Books Trivandrum, Writers, Young Years Of Abraham Lincoln



Comments

Steve Kinsman
8th Jul 2011 (#)
 
This is a fantastic article, well researched and very well written. Congratulations on a well-deserved star page, PSRemeshChandra.

Denise O
8th Jul 2011 (#)
 
Darn good information on Abraham Lincoln. Also great writing. Congrats on the star page, it is well deserved. Thank you for sharing.
PSRemeshChandra
8th Jul 2011 (#)
 
Dear Steve Kinsman,
Dear Denise O,

Abraham Lincoln is one of the few world leaders whom I respect most. When I was a school student, I had opportunity to read many things about Lincoln which I have not forgotten still. They were taught me in the class by my father who was also my class teacher and English teacher in the school and an admirer of Abraham Lincoln. Those incidents include his excellent jokes which were many. Once he asked a neighbour if he would take his coat to the town in his cart. The neighbour asked him when and how Lincoln would be going to get his coat back. Lincoln's reply was that he intended to stay inside his coat. His hands were not only strong to cut trees down within moments, but quick also to help the poor without even them knowing about it. His lawyer profession was solely for helping the poor and the innocent, and practically gained nothing by way of fees. There are excellent stories of him rescuing many innocent people from the labyrinth of law. Thank you for your appreciation of the article.

Meet the author
PSRemeshChandra
 
Editor of Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum. Author of several books in English and in Malayalam. And also author of Swan : The Intelligent Picture Book. 

024. Spring Time. O Henry Story. Reintroduced By P S Remesh Chandran

024.

Spring Time. O Henry Story. Reintroduced By P S Remesh Chandran
 
Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum

Image By Kirsten Ivatts0. Graphics: Adobe SP

First published: 6th Jun 2011.  

 

O. Henry’s stories are famous for the twist towards their end. William Sydney Porter was the real person behind this name. He wrote more than Two hundred short stories, almost all of them equally famous. His stories are noted for the great sympathy they show towards human life. Here in this story he is describing how the happiness of spring is returning to Sarah’s life after the cold of a winter. 

Typewritten menus for a restaurant in exchange for three meals a day.

The O. Henry family in 1890s.

Sarah made her living through type writing. In the cold winter times, food was a problem. She made an agreement with the Schulenburg (Shoolenberg) Restaurant near her home. According to the agreement she would type the bill of fares for their twenty one tables each day and they had to provide her with three meals a day. When spring finally arrived it had no character of a spring. The snow of January still lay there in the streets even though it was March. And spring was already delayed a little in that American City of Manhattan. When spring arrived, there were changes in the menu of the restaurant. Soups became lighter, meat dishes changed and fried foods altogether vanished. 

Life in distant farms in the countryside can be as calm, quiet and peaceful as a gently flowing river.

Typing away dreams.

While Sarah was typing the bill of fares for the restaurant, her mind flew back to the country side she visited during the last summer. Life in distant farms in the country side can be as calm, quiet and peaceful as a gently flowing river. After the tediousness and monotony of life in a city, the life in the country side seemed to her appealing and pleasant. She had there fallen in love with a young farmer by the name of Walter. He was a very clever and modern farmer who had a telephone in his cow-house. He could even calculate cleverly the effect of Canadian wheat crops on the American prices of commodities.

Heaven sent Dandelions to show how pleased and delighted the ethereal realms were with earth.
 

Distant farms can be as quiet as a flowing river.

Sarah and Walter loved each other and he had decorated her hair with dandelion leaves and flowers as an expression of his love. She had left those flowers there for his caring and walked back home happily. We living in cities great and small can assume how much she might have wished to stay forever in those glens, vales and coves. How much will not an insecure girl wish for a safe and secure life under the protection of a loving husband! Her wishes were granted. They had agreed to get married in spring but he has not yet arrived in her town. She is awaiting him and she wept on her type writer.

No human beings are left alone. Teardrops of a loner are wiped away by invisible hands. 

Two dandelion friends catching the Sun.

In the evening the waiter from the restaurant brought Sarah’s food and the next day’s menu. While typing, a dish item in the menu caught her attention. It was ‘Dandelion with Eggs.’ Dandelions are not only a food but a symbol of love also. While typing, the very word Dandelion made her remember her long awaited lover and weep again. In her grief and tears a strange thing happened. One tear drop fell on the type written menu and one word was mistyped.

It is an invisible God that leads the way and walks a few miles with us.

The last Typewriter Factory closed in 2011 in India.

The next day, Walter from the country side arrived Sarah’s town, Manhattan searching for her. She had moved from her old address and the letter she sent him from the new address unfortunately had not reached him. Therefore he was not in a position to know about her whereabouts. He by chance stepped into the Schulenburg Restaurant and was given a menu of that day’s dishes. But what a bill of fare! There was the all distinguishable mark of a tear drop on it. ‘Dearest Walter with Eggs’ typed in place of 'Dandelion with Eggs'. And there was the tell tale characteristic of his lover- the capital ‘W’ typed above the line! The instant he sighted this strange bill of fare, Walter knew who the typist who created this laughable thing was. Without waiting, obtaining her address from the restaurant, he rushed to her house.

Image By Kirsten Ivatts0. Graphics: Adobe SP

___________________________
Pictures Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
___________________________

Tags

American Literature, American Writers, Appreciations, English Literature, English Short Stories, English Short Story Writers, O Henry, P S Remesh Chandran, Reviews, Sahyadri Books And Bloom Books Trivandrum, Short Stories, Spring Time, Stories, Studies, William Sydney Porter

Meet the author
PSRemeshChandra
 
Editor of Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum. Author of several books in English and in Malayalam. And also author of Swan : The Intelligent Picture Book.