THE RACE- Short Story

                About The Author

  Nisha Punjabi

Nisha Punjabi, a graduate in English Literature and Economics, is a freelance writer based in Lucknow,  India.  From 2004 to 2005, she was employed by the Lucknow Times, the daily magazine of The Times of India  as a freelancer to write for them. Nisha Punjabi is introduced to the learner as a budding woman writer of India.

                             SUMMARY

This wonderful story discusses a common trend in (Indian) families. It is the story of Tarun, a brilliant athlete whose talents were not recognized by his family for a long time. Having felt lost and unwanted, Tarun lived a miserable childhood until he met Ram Narayan, no, until Ram Narayan, a well known coach of his days, met him in a park. The great man was of the first impression that Tarun could become an athlete.

Ram Narayan agreed to train Tarun on a single condition – Tarun had to qualify in the race on the Children’s Day. Tarun was very much confident about winning the race so he agreed to participate in the race. Thereafter he began rigorous practice to qualify in the race.

Finally, on the 14th of November, the great day arrived. Participants lined up for the event. Galleries stood breathless as the race started. In spite of all his hard work and day-long practice, Tarun slipped along a shallow path on the track and fell down. Tarun didn’t know what to do. He heard his mother screaming at him to get up and run.

Tarun got up and ran. Surprisingly he overtook a few participants and fell down a second time and then a third time. Even Ram Narayan shouted at Tarun to run. However, when the race ended, a boy called Pawan won the race.

And Tarun? Tarun was the last but the crowd grew proud of this boy who crossed the line last. What about Ram Narayan? He too was proud of training Tarun on account of his tireless, repeated attempts even after having fallen thrice.

Activity 1 (Character sketch)

Activity 2 -  Write-up

know Literature,Know the Author

When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it. Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

The Brazilian author PAULO COELHO was born in 1947 in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Before dedicating his life completely to literature, he worked as theatre director and actor, lyricist and journalist. In 1986, PAULO COELHO did the pilgrimage to Saint James of Compostella, an experience later to be documented in his book The Pilgrimage. In the following year, COELHO published The Alchemist. Slow initial sales convinced his first publisher to drop the novel, but it went on to become one of the best selling Brazilian books of all time. Other titles include Brida (1990), The Valkyries (1992), By the river Piedra I sat Down and Wept (1994), the collection of his best columns published in the Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo entitle Maktub (1994), the compilation of texts Phrases (1995), The Fifth Mountain (1996), Manual of a Warrior of Light (1997), Veronika decides to die (1998), The Devil and Miss Prym (2000), the compilation of traditional tales in Stories for parents, children and grandchildren (2001), Eleven Minutes (2003), The Zahir (2005), The Witch of Portobello (2006) and Winner Stands Alone (to be released in 2009). During the months of March, April, May and June 2006, Paulo Coelho traveled to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his pilgrimage to Saint James of Compostella in 1986. He also held surprise book signings - announced one day in advance - in some cities along the way, to have a chance to meet his readers. In ninety days of pilgrimage the author traveled around the globe and took the famous Transiberrian train that took him to Vladivostok. During this experience Paulo Coelho launched his blog Walking the Path - The Pilgrimage in order to share with his readers his impressions. Since this first blog Paulo Coelho has expanded his presence in the internet with his daily blogs in Wordpress, Myspace & Facebook. He is equally present in media sharing sites such as Youtube and Flickr, offering on a regular basis not only texts but also videos and pictures to his readers. From this intensive interest and use of the Internet sprang his bold new project: The Experimental Witch where he invites his readers to adapt to the screen his book The Witch of Portobello. Indeed Paulo Coelho is a firm believer of Internet as a new media and is the first Best-selling author to actively support online free distribution of his work.