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Don Quixote (Savouring the Classics)

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 Savouring the Classics - Module III: Novel Excerpts Don Quixote by  Miguel de Cervantes Chapter VIII “Don Quixote” is a novel by Cervantes, the great Spanish writer. It speaks of the adventures of a man who reads many stories, and decides to set out for adventure. Chapter VIII describes a few of his adventures. Cervantes considers himself as the second author, who tells us that he got this story from another source. Don Quixote considers himself as a knight, and travels with his friend Sancho Panza. Sancho is the neighbour of Don Quixote. He acts as the knight’s squire. Sancho is a poor and simple farmer but more practical than his friend. One day, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza were travelling together. Don Quixote thinks that he is a knight, and Sancho Panza is his squire. They see some windmills in the countryside. Don Quixote believes that these are giants. So, he decides to fight and kill them. Sancho Panza tries to tell Don Quixote that they are windmills, but fails. Don Quixote

I See Kashmir From New Delhi at Midnight

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  I See Kashmir From New Delhi at Midnight Agha Shahid Ali The Poet Agha Shahid Ali was born in 1949: just one year or more after Independence, and also after partition. His birth was in Delhi, but he was raised up in Kashmir. Life in Kashmir was difficult in those days. The problems of partition, with India and Pakistan holding claim to the territories there, made the place a constant field of fights and tensions. The poet moved over to the USA in 1976. This poem forms part of a collection “The Country without a Post Office”. which came out in 1997. Agha Shahid Ali is a representative of diaspora. He has childhood memories of Kashmir. He spent his youthhood partly in Delhi, where he had his college education. Then he moved over to the United States of America, where he became a teacher and emerged as a noted poet. In most of his poems, Kashmir and its problems form the theme. The Poem “I See Kashmir From New Delhi at Midnight”, by Agha Shahid Ali, is a diasporic poem, where the poet h