Lord Buddha and the bereaved lady
In a certain village a widow lived with her only son. She love her son with all her heart. One day she lost her son to a dreaded disease . She became almost mad with grief. She did not know how she could live without her dear son. He was the apple of her eye. Somehow she came to know that Lord Buddha was camping at the outskirts of the village with His disciples. She reached there with the lifeless body of her departed son and flung herself at the feet of the Master. Wailing loudly she said,'' Oh Lord! we all know that you are the incarnation of God. You possess the power to give back life. Please restore my son to life, I cannot live without him.'' Lord Buddha helped the lady stand on her feet and said in a kindly voice,'' Death is the culmination of life. What is born must die. I cannot restore your son to life. I have no such power." these words of wisdom failed to pacify the bereaved mother. She would not listen to any reason. So Lord Buddha decided to teach her an important lesson of life. He said in a sympathetic voice,'' Please go back to from where you have come and bring me a handful of mustard seeds from a house where death has never visited.'' These kind words gave the widow a ray of hope. She ran back to her village and went from door to door in search of a handful of mustard seeds but she found not a single house which was never visited by death, The lady then understood the meaning of Lord Buddha's words. She went back to the Master and said,'' Oh ! Lord, I have understood the meaning of your words. Please accept me as your disciple. I want to dedicate my life to serve the society.'' The Master smiled a devine smile and granted her prayer.
The students who are preparing to sit for the MP examination will find this story in the TEST PAPERS. You can use it if you like. You are free to edit it. I just want to draw your attention to two important points.
a) That all the stories are told and re-told in the past tense and
b) That you can use direct speech in a story. But the major par of the story is written or told or re-told in the indirect narration. It is time for us,then, to learn how we can write both the forms correctly. We have to learn certain rules for changing from DIRECT SPEECH/NARRATION to INDIRECT SPEECH/ NARRATION.
Should we start now? Yes, we should because NOW is the most important time in our life. For we cannot edit or change the PAST and we do not know what will happen in the FUTURE. Who has seen tomorrow? Nobody has. So......here are the common rules for NARRATION CHANGE.
1. Narration means description. If we quote verbatim what another person has said we keep his or her words within a quotation or within inverted commas. This form of the narration/speech is called DIRECT NARRATION/SPEECH.
2 .If we narrate what another person has said in our own words it is called INDIRECT NARRATION/Speech.
3. The speaker may use present, past or future tense while reporting or telling or saying something. This verb is known as ''reporting verb''.
4. The verb which is used within the quotation/inverted commas, is called '' reported verb".
Rule No 1. If the reporting verb is in the present tense then the tense of the reported verb will not change at all.
Rule No 2. If the reporting verb is in the future tense the the tense of the reported verb will remain the same.
Rule No 3.The problem arises when the reporting verb is in the past tense . Here we have to remember the following table.
This much for today. HAPPY LEARLING.
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spk 27.7.15
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