IN BED

                                   IN BED 

-Joan Didion

'In Bed' is a essay written by Joan Didion which describes the experience of the essayist with Migraine headache. The essayist presents migraine attack as a friend rather than a foe (enemy).

Didion is a migraine patient and she has migraine attack 3-5 times a month. She takes certain drugs to avoid migraine; otherwise she would just be able to work 1 day in 4. When she was 15,16 or even 25, she used to think that she could get rid of migraine simply by neglecting it. Migraine was a shameful secret for her. She thought she had migraine because of chemical defect, her own bad attitudes, unpleasant tempers and wrong think.

She heard of many famous persons who had migraines, even children age as young as 2 years old. She had her first migraine when she was 8. The most important thing that she discovered is that migraine is a complex hereditary disease. There are many other reasons too. However, Hereditary character is the most important cause of migraine. Now Joan Didion is happy she has a migraine not because of chemical defects, bad attitudes, unpleasant tempers, wrong think but because her grandmother had a migraine and her parents both have migraine.

It is not exactly known what is inherited that causes migraine. However, the chemistry of migraine is supposed to be related with a nerve hormone called serotonin, which is found in the brain. Migraine attack is supposed to be triggered by the sharp decrease in amount of serotonin in blood. A drug named Methy Sergide is advised at serious cases as preventive which has side effects. However, There is no cure to Migraine.

When the writer has migraine, she drives through red lights, loses keys, spills whatever she holds, cannot focus her eyes and cannot make meaningful sentences ( aphasia ). Her pain is unbearable. But it is an ambiguous  blessing that nobody dies of migraine. The patients of migraine suffer form popular misconceptions about migraine. Non migraines think that migraine can be cured by taking a couple of aspirin. They charge that migraine patients are willingly refusing to cure themselves with aspirin. Some doctors talk about migraine patients as perfectionist. But Joan Didion has a different personality. Her hair is messy, household work is neglected and she spends most of her week writing, re-writing and not writing a single paragraph. This is her perfectionism.

Nobody can escape the migraine heredity. So, the author has learned to live with her migraine. She has made it her life long friend and has reached a certain understanding with it. It never attacks her when she has major problems like her house is burnt down, her husband has left her, there is violence in the streets,etc. It attacks her  instead when she has minor problems like she is worried about something, she is in household confusions, she has lost her washings,  she has to receive too much telephone,  the wind is coming up, etc.

Now John Didion responds towards her own migraine intellectually ( logically than emotionally ). She no longer fights against it. When the pain begins, she simply lies down in her bed and lets it happen. She concentrates only on the migraine pain as if she is in a yoga practice. The pain leaves her head 10 or 12 hours later and everything goes with it. It means all her worries and resentments (mixture of disappointment, fear and anger ) disappear. Now she is perfectly well, opens the windows and feels the air. She eats gratefully and sleeps well. She appreciates the beauty of nature and thinks how lucky she is .

 

THE GARDENER

                               THE GARDENER

BY: Rudyard Kipling

Helen Turrell  is a  35 year old unwed mother who is ashamed of the dogma of the society. She is ashamed of the society because she is not married but pregnant. She lives in Hampshire, England and  went to the south of France to deliver her baby. She returned home with her baby after she got fully recovered from her pregnancy.

As she was an unwed mother, she lied to the society about her child. She told the villagers that it was her brother George Turrell's  child. She said her brother had an illegitimate relationship with the daughter of a retired non commissioned officer when he was the inspector of police in India. She also said that her brother had died falling from a horse, a few days before the child had been born. She also lied that she had paid the child's mother to let her keep the child. She also added that she had managed for the passes of the baby and a nurse from Bombay to the south of France. Helen lied that the baby suffered dysentery because of the nurse's carelessness and she had to dismiss her. These all were the lies that Helen let the villagers know.

The baby was baptized  Michael Turrell. Helen said everyone that Michael was her nephew and she was his aunt. Michael was a Turrell overall and everyone had to accept that. Michael grew up fearless, philosophical and fairly good looking person. At the age of 6, he asked Helen why he couldn't call her his mom. Helen explained that he must call her 'auntie' and if he wanted, he could call her 'mummy' at the bedtime only. It was to be a secret between them.

Michael kept the secret most loyally but Helen explained it to her friends. To Helen, all her details were public property. She believed that scandals spread more by hushing them up. When Michael
came to know about that, he became angry. He quarreled with Helen and said that she had hurt his feelings. He said, '' .....when I'm dead I'll hurt you worse.'' Helen couldn't endure it and she wept. Michael wept too.

Michael was sent to a private school where he was told that he was born outside marriage. He didn't want to argue with Helen about that. During the first world war, Michael enrolled in the army when he was to go to Oxford with a scholarship. Helen didn't like that and he assured her by saying that it was in the blood of Turrell family. Fortunately Michael didn't have to do much fighting because he was not sent to the war front. He was again sent to France, where the luck favored him. He wrote Helen that there was no danger and therefore no need to worry. A month later, however, he was killed by an exploding shell (bomb) that completely buried his body.

A few months later, Helen received an official information that the body of Lieutenant Michael Turrell had been found, identified and reburied in a cemetery in Belgium. The row and grave number was written in the letter. After that she decided to visit his grave. On the way to cemetery, she met a woman named Mrs. Scarsworth, who used to visit the graves for her friends who couldn't visit the grave themselves. She used to take the photograph of the graves. Late at night, Mrs. Scarsworth came to Helen's hotel room and said that she had been telling lies. She said that her genuine reason behind making revisits was to visit the grave of a special person. (This implies that at the time of first world war, many women were unmarried but pregnant. They used to make similar excuses like Helen and used to come to visit their graves. Many women had illicit relationships before the first world war in England. But that time, England was ruled by traditional beliefs and many women had to make the excuse of Nephew and Auntie relationship to save themselves from the disgrace of the society)

The next morning, Helen went to the cemetery to find Michael's grave. However, it was impossible for Helen to find the exact location of Michael's grave because the cemetery was very large and there were thousands of black crosses that looked the same. Just then, a man came to Helen, asked her whose grave she was looking for. Helen replied, '' Lieutenant Michael Turrell- my nephew.''  The man lifted his eyes, looked her with infinite compassion and said. '' Come with me and I'll show you where your son lies.'' When Helen left the cemetery, she turned and gave him a last look. The man was bending over the young plants. She supposed him to be the gardener.

IMPORTANT QUESTIONS HERE 

The Recurring dream

                        THE RECURRING DREAM

 

The recurring dream is a story of supernatural from England. In this story, has been described the odd and mysterious dream that our protagonist- Kimberly Clark suffers almost every night.

The story starts with the description of Kimberly Clark. She is a young, beautiful woman of 25, who loves to dance. She works at a good position in a large company. However her life is not as happy as it should be. She is haunted every night by a dream that she thinks  does not have any connection to her.

Her strange dream begins in a country road ( a village road) , where she finds herself standing on a road. There is a lane with white fence and hedge on each side. At the end of the road, on top of the hill, there is a small white cottage with green shutters. In the dream, she walks to the house, enters in and looks around. In a room she finds a man asleep in bed. The man is little, old with white hair and a white beard. When Kim tries to talk to the old man, she ends up waking up in her apartment in London.

This happens almost every night and our protagonist is very much worried. She talks about this problem of hers, to her roommate, Janet Wilson. Janet advises her (Kim) to go to her ( Janet's)  parents' farm for a few days. Janet thinks that Kim's trouble will vanish away if they spend some time in peace, away from the hum-drum of the noisy city. Kim agrees.

Next Saturday, they leave for the farm in Janet's car. Janet drives while Kim sits on the back seat enjoying the sights. When they were away from the city, Kim falls asleep on the back seat. A little later when Kim wakes up, what she sees astounds her. Her eyes open wide. With great surprise, Kim tells Janet that it is the same place she dreams every night. She tells Jan to stop the car and let her go to that cottage with green shutters. Janet tries to stop Kim thinking that it might be her (Kim's) imagination. But Kim gets out. With every step closer to the cottage, her heart pounds faster. She is very frightened.

She finally is in front of the cottage.  The cottage is same- as in her dream. But there is an only difference that there is a sign that says 'FOR SALE'. Kim knocks the door and an old man opens the door. To her great surprise, It is the same man from her dream. The old man on seeing Kim immediately closes the door. Kim asks him not to close the door as she has to talk with him. The old man asks Kim to go away but Kim says that she's there because she saw the FOR SALE sign board. The old man is sure that Kim wouldn't want to buy that house because the house was haunted. Kim says who would haunt that pretty house. The old man says,'It's you' and bangs the door shut.

         

                               IMPORTANT QUESTIONS HERE