Back to: Karnataka Board Class 7th English Guide and Notes
Table of Contents
Introduction
The lesson ‘India through the eyes of a foreigner’ is a short account by a British Indian Radio Journalist Mark Tully,in which he has shared his experiences in India, and the reason why he likes India and Indians with his whole heart He intensely gives us the portrait of India’s natural beauty and and it’s beautiful diversity in social religions and cultural activities.
Arrival in India
After arrival in India,Mark Tully realised that it was not difficult to get involved in India. His friends introduced him to the staff of All India Radio, Press club and his neighbours. He did not go back to England because of his supporting and motivating friends. Apart from friends, he was also drawn to the natural beauty of India. One week he was camping in the Great Himalayan National Park watching the snow mountains glitter in the sunset and the next week he would be in Kerala, sitting and watching the sunset over the Arabian sea.
Beauty of India
He is nostalgic about the smells of seasons of India. He distinguishes the dry scent of early summer of Delhi. He is impressed by the variety of folk songs and Indian classical music. He feels that the classical ragas start with decency and end in ecstasy. Mark Tully is amazed at the great epics and the love poetry of India so much that one wall of his flat is covered by the art of the Pradhan tribe of Central India.
He is mesmerized by the colour of the festivals, the solemn dignity of the courtyards of the great Mosques filled with line after line of worshippers bowing their heads in prayer and the colourful informality of the pujari performing the evening rites in a Hindu temple. There’s the sound of priests singing the Sikh scriptures carrying across the water of the sacred tank in which the Golden temple stands.
He had never known anyone to be disappointed by the Taj Mahal or the forts of Rajasthan. There are the fresh cooked parathas for breakfast in the open-air dhabas or restaurants along the Grand Trunk Road, and there’s the delicacy of a vegetarian thali or tray in Gujarat.
He admits that all these things forced him to stay in India. He is upset as he could not give a suitable description of India as he is not a poet. Most foreigners like him believe that India and Indians are unique. He is grateful to India and Indians for being accepted as one of themselves.
