In celebration of being Alive Summary, Explanation, Word Meanings PSEB Class 12 English Chapter 7

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Theme of the Lesson In celebration of being Alive

The story is centered around suffering and the topic of why people suffer and how one can recover after a traumatizing and horrifying experience. The chapter highlights a philosophical discussion on the reasons for living and suffering, in a clear and concise manner. The chapter also briefly reflects the difference in a religious person’s outlook and a scientific and logical person’s outlook on suffering. The story sheds light on the business of living and how suffering helped a person appreciate life more by taking the example of two intrepid youngsters who continued to be positive and cheerful despite having experienced horrifying and heartbreaking tragedies.

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In celebration of being Alive Lesson Explanation

Passage: More and more, as I near the end of my career as a heart surgeon, my thoughts have turned to the consideration of why people should suffer. Suffering seems so cruelly prevalent in the world today. Do you know that of the 125 million children born this year, 12 million are unlikely to reach the age of one and another six million will die before the age of five? And, of the rest, many will end up as mental or physical cripples.
My gloomy thoughts probably stem from an accident I had a few years ago. One minute I was crossing the street with my wife after a lovely meal together, and the next minute a car had hit me and knocked me into my wife. She was thrown into the other lane and struck by a car coming from the opposite direction.

Word-meanings:
consideration (n): careful thought
prevalent (adj): widespread
cripple (n): a person who is unable to walk or move normally because of a disease or injury
stem (v): to result from

Passage Explanation: The narrator is a famous heart surgeon. However, after an accident, he is unable to continue being a heart surgeon, and so his career as a heart surgeon drew to an end. As his career was ending, he had nothing to focus on anymore and so he started to wonder why people suffered. He noticed that suffering was so widespread in the world and he felt that it was cruel and unfair. He then shared a fact that 125 million children were born that year and out of those children, 12 million or approximately 10 percent of the newborn children would not even reach the age of one, meaning that they would unfortunately die without even living for at least one year. So, only 113 million out of 125 million children would have the privilege of being one year olds. Moreover, out of those 113 million children, 6 million children will not reach the age of five, meaning that 6 percent of children will again die due to unfortunate circumstances. Additionally, out of the remaining 107 million children, many children would be unable to live properly due to physical and/or mental incapabilities. This is the harsh and cruel reality of the world we live in, where many children are unable to live their lives properly from such a young age. The narrator’s gloomy thoughts were a result of an unfortunate and horrible accident that he and his wife had suffered from. He and his wife were crossing a road and they just had a wonderful meal together. Then suddenly, a car collided with the narrator and he was thrown into his wife. His wife fell in the other lane due to the strong impact of the collision and lay on the road when a car coming from the opposite direction came and struck her. Due to the horrifying accident, the narrator developed a pessimistic viewpoint on life and the meaning of life.

Passage: During the next few days, in the hospital I experienced not only agony and fear but also anger. I could not understand why my wife and I had to suffer. I had eleven broken ribs and a perforated lung. My wife had a badly fractured shoulder. Over and over, I asked myself, why should this happen to us? I had work to do, after all; there were patients waiting for me to operate on them. My wife had a young baby who needed her care.
My father, had he still been alive, would have said: “My son, it’s God’s will. That’s the way God tests you. Suffering ennobles you – makes you a better person.”
But, as a doctor, I see nothing noble in a patient’s thrashing around in a sweat-soaked bed, mind clouded in agony. Nor can I see any nobility in the crying of a lonely child in a ward at night.

Word-meanings:
agony (n): extreme and unbearable pain
perforate (v): to make holes through something
ennoble (v): to make somebody noble
thrashing around (v): move in a violent and convulsive way
ward (n): a separate room

Passage Explanation: After the accident, the narrator experienced agony, fear and anger. He experienced pain because he had eleven broken ribs and one of his lungs had holes in it. He experienced fear because he was scared for the well-being of himself and his wife, who had a fractured shoulder and their son, who was now all alone. He felt angry because he could not understand why he and his wife had to suffer so much. He could no longer treat his patients, and his wife could no longer give their baby proper care due to her injuries. He then recalled his father, who was a religious man. If his father would have been alive, he would have told the narrator that everything that was happening was because God was testing him and his wife. According to his father, suffering made a person better and more noble. However, the narrator was a doctor and had seen a lot of suffering. He disagreed with his father’s opinion, because he could not see how suffering made someone more noble. Patients moved and convulsed violently on the hospital bed because of the pain they experienced, and the lonely children who waited for their parents’ recovery cried at night. In both scenarios, the narrator did not see how it led to people being more noble after experiencing suffering. This passage reflects the difference in a religious person’s outlook and a scientific and logical person’s outlook on suffering.

Passage: I had my first introduction to the suffering of children when I was a little boy. One day my father showed me a half-eaten, mouldy biscuit with two tiny tooth marks in it. And he told me about my brother, who had died several years earlier. He told me about the suffering of this child, who had been born with an abnormal heart. If he had been born today, probably someone could have corrected that heart problem, but in those days they didn’t have sophisticated heart surgery. And this mouldy biscuit was the last biscuit my brother had eaten before his death.
As a doctor, I have always found the suffering of children particularly heartbreaking- especially because of their total trust in doctors and nurses. They believe you are going to help them. If you can’t, they accept their fate. They go through mutilating surgery, and afterwards they don’t complain.

Word-meanings:
abnormal (adj): not normal
sophisticated (adj): an advanced technique
mutilate (v): to damage somebody’s body very severely especially by cutting part of it

Passage Explanation: The narrator then tells us about the first time he had been exposed to the suffering of children. He was a little boy when his father showed him a half-eaten mouldy biscuit with two tiny tooth marks in it. The biscuit had a particular significance to it. According to his father, the biscuit had been eaten by the narrator’s brother, who had died several years earlier. His brother had been born with an abnormal heart. If he had been born when the narrator had become a heart surgeon and discovered a way to save people with heart conditions, he would have lived. However, back then, such advanced techniques for heart surgery were not developed. Due to the abnormal heart, his brother could not live long, and the biscuit was the last thing he had eaten before his death. The father had kept the biscuit to remember his first son. Since he was exposed to such a heartbreaking tragedy, the narrator grew up to be a heart surgeon, to help lessen the suffering of children. While he finds suffering as a whole to be heartbreaking, suffering of children was even more heartbreaking. Children trust doctors and nurses whole-heartedly. And if they were told that they couldn’t be saved, they accepted their tragic fate. They allowed the doctors to put them through surgery that ruined their body, because of the trust in the doctors and believing with all their heart that this would help them live a better life.

Passage: One morning, several years ago, I witnessed what I call the Grand Prix of Cape Town’s Red Cross Children’s Hospital. It opened my eyes to the fact that I was missing something in all my thinking about suffering – something basic that was full of solace for me.

Word-meanings:
solace (n): comfort or consolation in a time of distress

Passage Explanation:The narrator, Dr. Barnard then recalled a racing competition, in which two patients raced down the hallways of the hospital named Cape Town’s Red Cross Children’s Hospital. He named the race “Grand Prix of Cape Town’s Red Cross Children’s Hospital.” When he saw the race and observed the two patients, he realized that he was missing something important about suffering. The realization gave him comfort while he was still recovering from his accident.

Passage: What happened there that morning was that a nurse had left a breakfast trolley unattended. And very soon this trolley was commandeered by an intrepid crew of two- a driver and a mechanic. The mechanic provided motor power by galloping along behind the trolley with his head down, while the driver, seated on the lower deck, held on with one hand and steered by scraping his foot on the floor. The choice of roles was easy, because the mechanic was totally blind and the driver had only one arm.

Word-meanings:
intrepid (adj): fearless (an intrepid explorer)
galloping (v): moving fast and gaining speed rapidly
steer (v): to control the direction of movement

Passage Explanation: The race occurred one morning, when a nurse left a trolley unattended which was used to transport breakfast to the patients. Two fearless patients took control of the trolley. One played the role of driver and the other played the role of the mechanic. The mechanic was blind while the driver had only one arm. Because the driver had only one arm, the blind patient took the role of a mechanic and pushed the trolley from behind. However, the mechanic couldn’t see and so the one-armed patient became the driver. He was seated on the lower deck and held on with his one and only hand. He steered the trolley by scraping his foot on the floor.

Passage: They put on quite a show that day. Judging by the laughter and shouts of encouragement from the rest of the patients, it was much better entertainment than anything anyone puts on at the Indianapolis 500 car race. There was a grand finale of scattered plates and silverware before the nurse and ward sister caught up with them, scolded them and put them back to bed.

Word-meanings:
ward sister (n): a senior, experienced nurse who is in charge of a hospital ward

Passage Explanation: The two patients rode the trolley while the rest of the patients laughed and cheered them on. The patients, who were the audience, were more entertained by their fellow patients’ race than one is entertained by the professional Indianapolis 500 car race. The two patients ended the funny and spectacular show by scattering plates and silverware everywhere. The nurse and ward sister finally caught them and scolded them for being careless and reckless. The two patients were then put to bed by the staff.

Passage: Let me tell you about these two. The mechanic was all of seven years old. One night, when his mother and father were drunk, his mother threw a lantern at his father, missed and the lantern broke over the child’s head and shoulders. He suffered severe third-degree burns on the upper part of his body, and lost both his eyes. At the time of the Grand Prix, he was a walking horror, with a disfigured face and a long flap of skin hanging from the side of his neck to his body. As the wound healed around his neck, his lower jaw became gripped in a mass of fibrous tissue. The only way this little boy could open his mouth was to raise his head. When I stopped by to see him after the race, he said, “You know, we won.” And he was laughing.

Word-meanings:
disfigured (adj): spoilt or ruined appearance
flap (n): a thin, flat piece of cloth, paper, metal, etc. that is hinged or attached on one side only and covers an opening or hangs down from something.

Passage Explanation: The narrator then talks about the two patients and their history. The blind mechanic had been a seven year old child when the incident which resulted in his blindness occured. It was tragic and shocking. One night, his mother and father were drunk and entered a fight. The fight became violent, and the mother finally picked up an oil lantern and threw it at the father. However, the lantern did not hit the father and missed him. Instead, the lantern landed on the child and broke, sending burning hot oil and fire over his head and shoulders. The child ended up suffering from third-degree burns of the upper part of his body and unfortunately, some of the oil and fire entered the child’s eyes, making the child blind. During the time of the race, the child looked horrifying and scary. His face was ruined and damaged and a thin piece of his molten skin was hanging from the side of his neck. Slowly, the boy’s wounds healed, but the damage was still too huge. His lower jaw was supported by just a bunch of fibrous tissue. He had difficulty opening his mouth and so, the only way he could open his mouth was to raise his head and lift his upper jaw. However, despite the difficulty, he would still open his mouth to speak and to even laugh.

Passage: The trolley’s driver I knew better. A few years earlier I had successfully closed a hole in his heart. He had returned to the hospital because he had a malignant tumour of the bone. A few days before the race, his shoulder and arm were amputated. There was little hope of his recovering. After the Grand Prix, he proudly informed me that the race was a success. The only problem was that the trolley’s wheels were not properly oiled, but he was a good driver, and he had full confidence in the mechanic.

Word-meanings:
malignant (adj): a tumour or disease that cannot be controlled and likely to cause death
amputate (v): to cut off somebody’s arm, leg in a medical operation

Passage Explanation: The narrator, who we know is a heart surgeon, had met the one-armed driver before the race. A few years ago, when the narrator was fine and working as usual, he had successfully closed a hole in the heart of the driver. However, now the driver had a malignant tumor in his bones, which is a type of tumor that is the most dangerous and can easily affect the entire body if left unchecked. To protect his life, one complete arm and shoulder were cut off in the medical operation. Still there was a slim chance of him fully recovering due to the nature of the tumor. Despite the nature of his illness and narrow chances of survival, the driver took immense pride in the success of the Grand Prix. Even though the wheels of the trolley were not properly oiled, he drove the trolley well while having absolute faith in the mechanic.

Passage: Suddenly, I realized that these two children had given me a profound lesson in getting on with the business of living. Because the business of living is joy in the real sense of the world, not just something for pleasure, amusement, recreation. The business of living is the celebration of being alive.
I had been looking at suffering from the wrong end. You don’t become a better person because you are suffering; but you become a better person because you have experienced suffering. We can’t appreciate light if we haven’t known darkness. Nor can we appreciate warmth if we have never suffered cold. These children showed me that it’s not what you’ve lost that’s important. What is important is what you have been left with.

Passage Explanation: When he saw the happiness, pride and the sense of satisfaction on the faces of the patients, the narrator had a sudden realization. The two patients had gone through a lot of tragedy and suffering. The mechanic was injured by his mother and was now blind, and the driver had first suffered a heart condition and then was experiencing a malignant tumor which resulted in an amputation. Yet, the two had chosen to take what they still had and chose to enjoy life instead of being bitter and depressed. The real business of living is celebrating the joy of being alive, not doing something for a fleeting moment of pleasure, amusement, and recreation. It is simply enjoying the fact that they were still alive despite everything that had happened to them. It’s finding a reason to live life happily with the resources available to them. For example: the mechanic pushed the trolley because he still had both of his arms while the driver steered the trolley because he still had eyes to see. The narrator still believed that suffering did not make a person better. However, he now had something else he believed in. He now believed that while you didn’t automatically become a better person by suffering, you did start to appreciate life and the importance of living to the fullest after suffering. For example- one usually does not appreciate the warmth of a blanket until the person has been out freezing in the cold weather. Similarly, one does not appreciate light until the person has been in complete darkness for a long time. Therefore, after experiencing suffering, one starts to appreciate what they have more than dwelling on what they have lost.

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Conclusion

This post covers the summary and explanation of the lesson ‘In celebration of being Alive’ from the book A Rainbow in English for students of PSEB Class 12. Students can get a quick recap of the lesson with the help of this post.

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