An Educational Tours Travelling as a means of education is as old as civilisation. We often read of foreign travelers coming to the ancient Indian seats of learning. Gentlemen scholars in the Middle Ages in Europe organised Grand Tours to Greece and Italy to quench their thirst for knowledge. Most of the religions of the world owe their great progress to travelling missionaries. Organised educational tours, however, are of recent origin,...

My Favourite Character in Fiction A fiction or a novel is an image of life, though in an unusual form. The characters in a fiction are indeed imaginary, yet they certainly represent the actual life we lead in society and in the world at large. This is the reason why there are certain characters in fiction which fascinate us so much. My favorite character in fiction is David, hero of Dickens’...

India: The Tourists’ Paradise India is the tourists’ paradise. There is no doubt in it. Some countries in the world have nothing about them to boast of. There is no historical building, no temple, and no place of art or architecture, no beautiful scene or sights of Nature. Some countries have one thing or the other. But India is rich in all these things. It is indeed the tourists’ paradise. Kashmir...

Value of Sports in Character-Building After defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo, the Duke of Wellington visited his old school at Eton and while addressing the students he said: “The battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton.” By this, he meant that the sense of discipline and the spirit of comradeship which he had imbibed on the sports ground had stood him in good stead in...

Real Happiness Since time immemorial, man has been searching for happiness in mountains, forests, ashrams, clubs and cinemas. But where is happiness? Just to escape for a while from the boredom and monotony of everyday existence can hardly be termed happiness. Our life may be a round of pleasures but pleasures too, have their sting no less than pain. Happiness is a lasting state of mind, whereas pleasures are short-lived. Happiness...

Indian Festivals and Their Significance India is a land of fairs, fetes, feasts and festivals, and every religious community has its own list. But the Hindus observe, by far, the largest number of them. Among the more prominent of the Hindu festivals, mention may be made of Diwali, Dussehra, Holi, Janmashtmi, etc. The principal festivals of the Muslims are the Muharram and the Id. The Christian community has its Easter and...

The Rainy Season Broadly speaking, there are four seasons in a year-summer, rainy, winter, and autumn. Summer season means hot months. The rainy season brings rains after the heat of the summer. Then comes the winter season of cold months. It is followed by autumn when leaves of the trees fall off and replace them with new ones. While people in the cities do not like the rainy season, it is...

My Favourite Author My favorite author is the Victorian novelist, Charles Dickens. My first acquaintance with him dates back to my early boyhood when I saw a film version of his famous novel A Tale of Two Cities which made a deep impression on my mind. As I grew up, I read the original novel. My interest in Dickens deepened and in the course of a few years, I read his...