MIXED BAG

  By PragyanSharma Polavarapu XTOLD BRITAIN – THE THREEOLD NATIONAL SYSTEMS December 29, 2025 In these essays we are interested only about development of the beautiful and simple modern English . This is not about the history of English people . We wish to know only how the old archaic English language developed through centuries into modern English . However for people of other countries where English is only a medium to read newspapers , novels, journals etc , it would be interesting to know about the country which produced English .We may note that even in 9th century AD ,English language was still perhaps like a Germanic dialect with German words and German phrases with only a few English-like words . A beautiful new English was perhaps evolving but it was 95% clothed in German. The warrior king Alfred The Great ,king of Wessex in southern England (and later accepted as king of all England for his warrior qualities) was a poetic minded king---loving the wor...

 By PragyanSharma Polavarapu (1) How difficult it is to study history of a language. When we read good story or poem in English or any other language we see and experience the delicate, kind and beautiful feelings passing through the heart of the writer at the moment he was writing it --one year back or even hundred or thousand years back. when we read old English poems/sonnets of Shakespeare ,Dryden, Milton, Keats, Shelley, Wordsworth, Byron, Lord Tennyson, Mathew Arnold (The Forsaken Merman) etc or old English novels of Sir Walter Scott, Oliver Goldsmith or even recent versatile Thomas Hardy we feel as if we hear their heartbeats of the moments when they were penning those lines. What I write here is for the “foreigner”—the distant South Asian, East Asian, Indian, African, Chinese, South American ,Arab etc—who enjoy reading the hundreds of good English books which contain beautiful nature descriptions, descriptions of the “ To-us-unfamiliar” frozen seas and icebergs , high...

 By PragyanSharma Polavarapu EXT6-OLD ENGLAND,OLD SCOTLAND AND OLD IRELAND (1) Centuries before arrival of Anglo-Saxons in Britain , there lived all over the British isles the Celtic people . The Celtic people ,though entirely different in culture and customs from Anglo-Saxons ,were thousands of years ago of same European ethnic origin as the Anglo-Saxons. But the geographic conditions were such that for thousands of years they lived separately in widely separate geographic regions. History tells that the Celts lived in central Europe around 1300 BC and later spread to other parts of Europe . The people of European regional culture called “La Tène culture” --( of times when metal iron was not known)--were said to be celtic. The Celtic people spread into the British isles from about 500 BC. (2) In course of time the majority of the Celtic people of Britain accepted Lord Jesus Christ’s message of love. It was the time when Romans ruled over southern England an...

By PragyanSharma Polavarapu INTRODUCTION The ancient Roman emperors made the new religion of love and sacrifice of Lord Jesus Christ the state religion of the empire in western Europe in fourth century AD. Christianity brought cultural uniformity in entire Roman Empire and it was as if a new light entered the lives of European people. With the direct support of the Roman emperor, the various kings and nobles magnificent churches , cathedrals and monasteries were built all over Europe. The church of the Roman Empire became the Roman Catholic church and it administered the entire church matters and spiritual matters in all countries of Europe. (This was the position before the Protestant Movement of 16th century). Many universities were opened teaching both religion and spirituality and subjects like astronomy, mathematics, geometry, state craft etc. After printing press was invented in 1440 the Holy Bible was translated into all European languages including English . I...

 By PragyanSharma Polavarapu (1)INTRODUCTION People all over the world in this modern age are getting educated. Everybody is eager to know ancient history of their country .History sites offer some good old history and people feel thrilled. But the modern man’s mind is deeply worried. There is a desire and dream never fulfilled. On planet Earth there should be only affection and love between religions, languages, races and countries. There should be no horrible wars with nuclear bombs , no mountainous hatreds in hearts and no ICBMs destroying G+10 , G+20 ,G+30 or even taller buildings in seconds. Now coming to the main story of my interest. I greatly like old English classics and wish to create such interest in others . Book reading was the route how Indians in old times gathered knowledge about old history and old literature of England.(There was no TV, no radio and no Internet) . There were only printed books . People wish for books of high intellectual cont...

By PragyanSharma Polavarapu PART ONE The story of development of parliamentary democracy in world is very interesting . Now we see every country in world supporting democracy, elections and parliamentary procedures. It is interesting to note that the nobles in old England 800 Years ago fought a war with an autocratic and authoritarian king John(1166-1216) and made him to sign their charter of demands(the famed “Magna Carta” ). The demands of nobles were that the king should not unnecessarily interfere in their work and should not imprison them , that the king should fully protect the rights of church and nobles and should consult the powerful nobles before imposing taxes on people or before spending public money for personal use of king. Thus was formed the House of Lords i.e. a powerful assembly of nobles. Later some other powerful aristocrats and rich merchants created another assembly (which became the “House of Commons”) and forced the later kings of England ...

  By PragyanSharma Polavarapu (1) ADMIRATION FOR CLASSICAL OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE I write a few more lines about my very limited reading achievements in the field of old classical English literature(Shakespeare, Dr Johnson, William Wordsworth etc). I write about a few English books of high literary merit which I luckily read and which secured permanent place on library racks and in readers’ hearts. Some are mentioned below. (a)The immortal works of Shakespeare with their old medieval world charm and majestic movement of words and phrases and glorious spiritual/philosophic /poetic meaning sometimes lively and optimistic and sometimes sad. (b) The immortal works of William Wordsworth containing great and sublime nature descriptions . Descriptions of gentle smiling nature fill the poet’s canvas. ( c ) The beautiful novels of Sir Walter Scott in which pen pictures of knights and daring heroic warriors riding the horse at wind speed, sometimes kidnapping a loved woman in a heroic warr...