Text-I     Skills Annexe

Unit-4: Human Values and Professional Ethics

-          Arnold J. Toynbee.

Arnold Toynbee gives an account of the unique achievements of the Indian people under the leadership of Gandhiji. These achievements are of very great value to the whole world in the present atomic age.

One Indian virtue that greatly impressed Toynbee and touched him greatly was the Indian people’s freedom from rancour. Indians never hate their adversaries. After a successful struggle, they do not brood over the past and nurse grievances. They do not hate the British and the Muslims who ruled India. Indians were inspired by Gandhiji to keep the freedom struggle on a spiritual plane above the level of mere politics. Non-violent revolution is a characteristic Indian accomplishment. The spirit of non-violence is a state of feeling inspired by a moral ideal. The people must live in harmony. A broad-minded approach to reality is characteristic of India. Indians do not maintain that their own way is the only way that has truth or virtue in it.

Indians tolerate the ways of others. Appreciation of variety is an object lesson of great value for the rest of the world in this atomic age. Technology has removed distances. Physically all are neighbors now but psychologically strangers. All must live together like a single family. We must love our neighbors. Variety in unity is a great India’s conspicuous achievement and of worldwide importance. There must be amity among all sections of people.

Another great Indian achievement is the combination of hard practical work and contemplation. This is characteristic of Indian tradition. Gandhiji proved that spiritual activity and practical activity can go together. The spiritual gift of contemplation makes Man human. This gift is still in Indian souls. It saves mankind from self-destruction.

These are the achievements of Indian people according to Arnold J.Toynbee.

Unit-5:                 SPORTS AND HEALTH

Sachin Tendulkar is considered to be one of the greatest batsmen of all time. In fact, he is a cricket legend. Born on 24 April 1973 in Mumbai, he showed himself as an outstanding athlete. He was not a particularly gifted student. His father was a professor and his mother worked for a life insurance company.

At the age of eleven, Tendulkar was given his first cricket bat. His talent was immediately proved. At the age of fourteen, he scored 329 runs out of a world record stand of 664 runs in a school match in Mumbai. Soon he became a cult figure among Mumbai schoolboys.

Sachin Tendulkar was the most complete batsman of his time. He was also the most prolific run-maker of all time. He was the biggest cricket icon the game has ever known. Tendulkar’s batting was based on the purest principles, namely, perfect balance, economy of movement, exactness in stroke-making and anticipation. Anticipation is the great quality of a genius. He was equally skillful at each of the full range of conventional shots.

Tendulkar’s game had no weakness in it. He could score all round the wicket. He had the technique to mould his game to all conditions and situations. Ha made runs in all parts of the world in all conditions. Some of his finest performances came against Australia which was the most dominant team of his time. The century he made at the age of nineteen against Australia. Australia was one of the best innings ever played in Australia. No wonder, Don Bradman, the greatest batsman of the world told his wife that Tendulkar reminded him of himself. With the keenest of cricket minds and with loathing for losing, Tendulkar became one of the best batsmen in the world.

Tendulkar’s greatness was established when he made his test debut at the age of sixteen. The very next year he scored a century at Old Trafford. It was a match-saving innings. Even before he was twenty-five, Tendulkar scored 16test hundreds. In 2000, he became the first batsman to score 50 international hundreds. In 2008, he passed Brian Lara’s total. He later went past 13,000 test runs and 30,000 international runs with 50 test hundreds.

Tendulkar holds the record of 100 hundreds in both tests and ODIs. He was the first batsman to score a double-century in one-day cricket. No wonder, Tendulkar is the most worshipped cricketer in the world.