Classics Retold

Half an hour later Bathsheba entered her house.  The candle light exposed the recent flush and excitement  on her face. The farewell words of Troy, who had accompanied her to the very door, still lingered in her ears.  He had bidden her adieu for two days for a visit to Bath and spend there with his friends.  He had also kissed her a second time.  This was only at a meeting by chance and not pre-arranged and it happened after her meeting with Oak. She sank down into a chair, wild and perturbed by the fevering sequences. Then she jumped up impulsively, and fetched a desk from a side table. In three minutes, without a pause or modification, she had written a letter to Boldwood, saying mildly but firmly that she had well considered his proposal, and decided not to accept it.  She went to the kitchen to find anyone to take it to Boldwood.  As she was moving along the passage, a dialogue was going on in the kitchen, and Bathsheba and Troy were the subject o...

Native runners known as sepoys or infantry men were the backbone of the East India Company army.  They constituted more than 90 per cent of the company army numbering 300 thousands.  Two months prior to the outbreak of rebellion, in the villages of northwestern provinces of India witnessed the revival of an old custom of circulating chapathis in the night by the Sepoys. It is believed that it was a secret message to be prepared for the mutiny.  How it worked  ° A runner coming at night carrying few chapathis. ° He deliver them to the chowkidar. ° Chowkidar prepares another set of chapathis. ° These are then sent to other villages through other runners. Irish reporter of Times, William Howard Russel later noted that it was a mysterious and fast method and difficult to trace the origin. It was thought that the mutineers were getting prepared. It was believed that it worked more swiftly than the British mail. It travelled from Farrukhabad to Gurgaon, from Oudh to Rohilk...

The Transition from raw diet to a cooked diet didn't just change human biology; it fundamentally shifted human technology.  Before fire, tools were primarily about extraction, after fire they evolved to processing and refinement.  Hominins like Homo habilis designed their tools that helped to get them at food. Those tools were an extension of their teeth and nails. What their teeth and nails could not do their tools did. These, according to archeologists, belonged to Oldowan traditions. They comprised hammer stones, sharp flakes and choppers. Hammer stones were fist-sized stones used to bash animal bones to get at calorie rich bone marrow.  Sharp flakes were crude stone slivers capable of slicing meat away from carcass.  Choppers were large heavy cores used for separating meat from thick hides.  The Oldowan tools were first discovered at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania.  Later, they had been discovered at various sites in eastern, central and southern Africa, inc...

Bathsheba loved Troy, and she abandoned her self reliance.  His embellishments surfaced and tha attracted her, while  the weaknesses went deep and unnoticed.  Bathsheba opened her heart to Liddy about her respect for Boldwood.  But her love of Troy was kept close to her breast. Gabriel could see the troubled waters and the absence of Boldwood from the house. An opportunity occured one evening when she had gone for a short walk by a path through the neighbouring corn fields.  It was dusk when Oak who had not been far afield that day, took the same path and met her returning, quite pensively.  The wheat was tall, and the path was narrow; the way was quite a sunken groove between the embrowning thicket on either side.  Two persons cannot walk abreast without damaging the crop.  Oak stood aside to let her pass.  "Oh, it is Gabriel?" she said; you are taking a walk too, goodnight." "I thought I would come to meet you," Oak said, turning and follow...

The prepositions On and upon are often interchangeable, but they differ in tone and usages.  Key differences and usage  "On" is common, direct and conversational, while upon is more formal, literary, or used to indicate immediate sequence and formal cause-and-effect relationships.  On is used in everyday informal, or standard English. Upon is used in writing, literature, or to sound more sophisticated.  Example: He placed the book on the table. -- Informal He placed the book upon the table. --  Formal. Upon signifies an event happens immediately after another, whereas on refers to a more general time.  Example: Upon arrival the meeting began. (Right after arriving) Example: On Monday the meeting began (a specific date) While interchangeable, upon can imply movement, while on is commonly used for static resting position.  Example: The bird landed upon the roof.  Example: The bird is on the roof  Some phrases strictly use either on or upon. On ...

The single most transformative event in the history of human bands, fundamentally altering both their biology and social structures was their mastery over fire.  It shifted humans from just  "another primate"  to a unique "cooking animal" with a high energy lifestyle. Even at this stage they moved in bands foraging. The bands were a sort of consanguin relationship.  Until at least 40000 years ago all humans lived in bands. In the course of our evolution we used ingenuity to out-source digestion, moving part of the process outside our bodies. This process is known as cooking and it served as a form of pre-digestion.  It broke down complex starch and denatured protein making them significantly easier to digest. To early humans, it was a gain of 30 to 50 percent of energy from the same amount of food.  Many plants like tubers and seeds that were toxic or indigestable when raw, became staple food source when cooked. Heat kills parasites and bacteria in raw meat...

The hill at one end of Bathsheba's dwelling extended into an uncultivated tract of land, covered with tall thickets of brake fern, plump and transparent, in hues of clear and untainted green.  At eight o'clock this midsummer evening, while the sun in the west still swept the tips of the ferns with its long, luxuriant rays Bathsheba appeared in their midst, their soft feathery arms caressed her upto her shoulders.  She paused, turned, went back over the hill, and down again to her own door, from where she cast a farewell glance upon the spot she had just left, having resolved not to remain near the place afterall. She saw a dim spot of artificial red moving round the shoulder of the rise.  It disappeared on the other side. She had doubts about the temerity of her decision.  Whether to go and abide by her promise, or remain here as nothing had happened. But her penchant for a visual of the sword exercise moved her legs towards the direction she traversed a few minutes ...