CBSE FREAK

Introduction Formal letter is a business or official letter. They are written to complaint or inform something. These letters include applications, letters to editors, official letters, letters to and from organizations, government departments etc. These letters have an objective or business-like style of writing. Points To Remember: 1. Mentioning the subject is a must in a formal letter. 2. The formal letter should be brief, simple and concise. 3. It should focus on the issue rather than dwindling on various other elements. 4. Colloquial words or expressions must be avoided. 5. The imperative tone must be avoided in case of formal letters. 6. Coherence should be maintained. 7. Marks will be awarded on the use of appropriate style, language, content and expression. 8. Although, marks will not be deducted for exceeding the word limit, it is advisable to follow the given word limit. Difference between formal and informal letters: The basic difference ...

The Tale of Melon City The poem The Tale Of Melon City is a narrative poem about how a melon, following a custom, was chosen to become the king of a state. It narrates in an amusing tone the events leading to such a situation when no other but a melon was coronated as the king. The poem begins with the description of a just and peace loving king ruling an ancient state. Once the king planned to construct an arch, spanning the main  thoroughfare. The purpose of the arch was to improve the onlookers morally and provide aesthetic joy to them. The plan of the king was executed immediately. One day the king was passing by the side of the thoroughfare. The arch was constructed very low so that the king's crown struck against  it and fell off. Immediately the king responded negatively. He felt dishonoured. He decided to hang the chief of builders holding him responsible. Necessary arrangements were made for the hanging. The chief of builders in his defence shifted the respons...

Birth The story Birth is an excerpt from The Citadel. It relates how a medical fresher handles a child delivery case in a mysterious way and brings back life in a seemingly dead born child. In doing so he applies his medical text book knowledge as well as intuition. He finds that text book knowledge alone is not sufficient to handle such cases. The story expresses the anxiety and excitement of the doctor, Andrew Manson and his team. In the beginning of the story, it is narrated how Andrew Manson who had recently passed out from a medical school, was returning home after a disappointing evening with his girl friend, Christine. It was midnight and when he reached near his house he was requested by Joe Morgan to attend to his wife immediately. She was expecting her first child. Andrew agreed to go despite late night. At the patient's house, Andrew saw that the lady was being attended to by a midwife. Mrs.Morgan was very serious. Andrew examined the patient and could understand ...

Mother's Day Mother’s Day, a play by J. B. Priestley, portraying the status of a mother in a household. Priestly humorously explores the story when Mrs. Pearson, in her forties, stands up for her rights and how her family reacts at this. Mrs. Pearson is very fond of her family and works day and night to support her family member in the best possible manner. However, she is upset at the way she is being treated. Nobody cares for her or asks about her. All day long she stays at home doing all the work. In the evening when the kids and her husband return she gave threw herself in meeting their demands. She did not want any dislikeable thing to happen in her household yet she craved for their attention and a little respect. She went to her neighbour Mrs. Fitzgerald, a fortune teller and a magician. Older and heavy, Mrs. Fitzgerald comes with a plan. She proposed that they could exchange bodies and then with Pearson’s body, she would teach a lesson to Pearson’s family that Mrs. Pea...

Albert Einstein at School The father of modern physics, Albert Einstein is famous to have discovered the theory of relativity which marked a revolution in physics. However, how many of us know the fact that in his early school days he was a dull student and got expelled from his school. No teacher liked him and he too, in turn, disliked attending school. This led to the school finally taking a decision in chasing him away. The narrative begins with Albert being asked about a date by his history teacher. This was when he was very abrupt and crude in replying that he found it pointless to memorise dates when one could flip through the necessary pages whenever one needed to. He believed in education but didn't consider learning facts as education. He hated school because he hated the conventional form of education and the teachers found him to be a 'disgrace.' Finally, the teacher, disgusted and fed up, asked him to be taken away by his father. Einstein also hated going ...

Ranga's Marriage Ranga’s Marriage, by Masti Venkatesh Iyengar, is a story about a boy who returns to his village after receiving education in English medium from Bangalore. The boy is the son of the accountant of the village. They live in the village Hoshali in Mysore. The boy when returns, the whole village floods over him to see if there is any change in his personality. However, to their dismay, he still has the same eyes and mouth and everything else. He did the traditional namaskar and all dispersed. The story is a first person narrative and a major portion of thecstory is in flash back. The speaker directly addresses the reader.The narrator is a neighbour of the protagonist. He introduces the story with a difference by first giving a detailed description of their village Hoshali. He praises the mangoes from his village. He asks the reader if he/she has ever heard of the village. He replies to the question himself, for the village was not located in any of the maps for t...

The Address The story The Address is all about human predicament that follows war. The story narrates how a daughter goes to her native place in Holland in search of her mother's belongings after the war. In the beginning of the story it is narrated how the protagonist was given a cold reception when she went to her native place after the war in search of her mother's belongings. After ringing the bell of House Number 46 in Marconi Street, a woman opened the door. On being introduced,the woman kept staring at her in silence. There was no sign of recognition on her face. The woman was wearing her mother's green knitted cardigan. The narrator could understand that she had made no mistake. She asked the woman whether she knew her mother. The woman could not deny this. The narrator wanted to talk to her for sometime. But the woman cautiously closed the door. The narrator stopped there for sometime and then left the place. In the subsequent sections, the memories of  the n...

The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse This is a story of two tribal Armenian boys who belonged to the Garoghlanian tribe. For their family, even at times of extreme poverty nothing could match the importance of honesty. They never did anything wrong and never lied or never even stole anything. The story talks about an incident that revolves around two cousins Aram who is nine years old and Mourad who is thirteen. The world, for Aram, at that time, seemed to be a delightful and extremely joyous yet mysterious dream. People believed in every imaginable kind of magnificence. Mourad was considered to be crazy by everybody he knew. The story opens with Mourad coming to Aram's house at four in the morning one fine day. He tapped on the window to Aram's room. When Aram looked out of the window, he was taken aback and startled to see Mourad riding a beautiful white horse. In fact, he was so dazed that Mourad had to say “Yes, it's a horse. You are not dreaming.” All this wa...