Abbreviations used Rs rupees – Org. original – Temp. temple – Fml. family – Mem. member – Pract. Practised – 2.2 SUMMARY BISMILLAH KHAN A LEGEND – Ustad Bismillah Khan was born and brought up at Dumaraon. He started learning music at a very early age. He used to play shehnai with his father at the temple at Varanasi. He even accompanied his father who was a court poet at Dumaraon. He got the honour of playing shehnai at Red Fort on the occasion of Independence. He believed in secularism and believed that all religions are one. Music was his soul. He breathed his last at Varanasi, but he played thumri before that on his death bed. READING SKILLS PASSAGES FOR PRACTICE (UNSOLVED) 1. Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given at the end:-- 12 1. Parsons and Markwardt are the two characters of the story. They are both blind, but that is where the resemblance ends. Parsons is introduced to us as a gentleman, a person who is successful in life as he has made it his business to take his handicap as something which is unavoidable and does not allow it to stand in his way. Parsons is grateful that he has been given the gift of life and is an insurance agent whereas earlier he had been nothing more than a skilled labourer. 2. On the other hand there is Markwardt, who uses his blindness to gain sympathy from all whom he meets and he turns into a common beggar. Fate brings the two men together. Markwardt attempts to sell Parsons a cigarette lighter and on being questioned about the cause of his blindness, he tells Parsons an all too familiar tale. 3. Markwardt relates the story of an incident which had taken place fourteen years earlier, a chemical explosion at C shop at the Westbury plant. In this explosion a hundred and eight people had been killed and two hundred injured. According to Markwardt he was one of those who had been crawling to safety when another man had climbed on top of him, hauled him back, trampled him and got out. At this point of the story. Parsons tells him that the story is true,
Abbreviations used Rs – rupees Org. – original Temp. – temple Fml. – family Mem. – member Pract. – Practised 2.2 SUMMARY BISMILLAH KHAN – A LEGEND Ustad Bismillah Khan was born and brought up at Dumaraon. He started learning music at a very early age. He used to play shehnai with his father at the temple at Varanasi. He even accompanied his father who was a court poet at Dumaraon. He got the honour of playing shehnai at Red Fort on the occasion of Independence. He believed in secularism and believed that all religions are one. Music was his soul. He breathed his last at Varanasi, but he played thumri before that on his death bed. READING SKILLS PASSAGES FOR PRACTICE (UNSOLVED) 1. Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given at the end:-- 12 1. Parsons and Markwardt are the two characters of the story. They are both blind, but that is where the resemblance ends. Parsons is introduced to us as a gentleman, a person who is successful in life as he has made it his business to take his handicap as something which is unavoidable and does not allow it to stand in his way. Parsons is grateful that he has been given the gift of life and is an insurance agent whereas earlier he had been nothing more than a skilled labourer. 2. On the other hand there is Markwardt, who uses his blindness to gain sympathy from all whom he meets and he turns into a common beggar. Fate brings the two men together. Markwardt attempts to sell Parsons a cigarette lighter and on being questioned about the cause of his blindness, he tells Parsons an all too familiar tale. 3. Markwardt relates the story of an incident which had taken place fourteen years earlier, a chemical explosion at C shop at the Westbury plant. In this explosion a hundred and eight people had been killed and two hundred injured. According to Markwardt he was one of those who had been crawling to safety when another man had climbed on top of him, hauled him back, trampled him and got out. At this point of the story. Parsons tells him that the story is true,
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