Antonio is not the hero of The Merchant of Venice but if we look at the opening scene then the readers may get the idea that he is the most important character in the drama. He is indeed the Merchant of Venice but not the hero of the play. It is true that he is directly or indirectly related to all the events of this drama. It is Antonio who entered into bitter feud with Shylock about lending money. He borrowed some money from Shylock because he wanted to help his best friend Bassanio to sail to Belmont. He somehow failed to repay the loan in due time and Shylock wanted to have a pound of his flesh as agreed in the contract of the loan. Then the trial scene happened and Portia came to save him from danger. In the end, he gets back everything including his life.

The first impression we get about Antonio in the Merchant of Venice is that he is a different kind of wealthy businessman. We know him as the rich merchant but he has hardly any of the qualities of a merchant. He is not a greedy rich man. Instead, he loves to share his wealth. He does not mind lending money to others without interest. Thus, he saved many people from becoming the victim of Shylock. That is why, Shylock is very annoyed and angry with him. Shylock hates Antonio as much as he can.

Antonio is shown in the drama as a generous friend. He is generous with all of his friends. He is rich but he does not show off. He is not a proud man infront of his man. Instead, it is clear that he treats his friends just like his equals. This is something that really should attract many readers. In our own lives, we have some friends who are extremely rich. I guess that most of the time, we find these friends as quite the opposite of Antonio. They are not generous and they show off a lot in front of their not so well off friends. It is a common disease among many rich men and women. That is why, Antonio looks to be different than other rich merchants. He cares for the condition of the ordinary people. He happily helps them without any expectation.

Antonio values friendship a lot. He likes Bassanio and they are best friends. Bassanio is not a rich man. He is infact a fortune seeker and he wants to go to Belmont to try his luck about getting married Portia, a very rich heiress. At that time, women could not own property after marriage in Europe. So, whoever gets married to Portia would get the princess and full kingdom. Antonio did not have enough cash in hand as most of his wealth were spread in his merchant ships. Still, he went to Shylock, lowered his head and agreed to a fatal contract about the repayment of the loan.

So far, I just talked about good sides of Antonio. Now, let us focus on not so good sides. I don’t think that he was a bad or evil character. It is true that Antonio sometimes abused Shylock with his words. Well, there are two sides to this matter. First of all, you can say that Antonio abused Shylock because Shylock was a Jew. On the other hand, you can say that Antonio disliked Shylock because he was a money lender and very few people are fan of a money lender who charges high interest. Anyway, his treatment of Shylock castes a dark shadow on Antonio’s character in The Merchant of Venice. If you want to identify him as an evil person for this matter, I will not debate with you.

Antonio is a naïve person. I cannot understand why he agreed to such a contract that if he failed to pay the loan to Shylock in due time, a pound of his flesh would be taken away by Shylock. Antonio knew very well that Shylock did not like him and Shylock was capable of doing bad things.

If signing the document was a shocking thing, still more shocking was that he was totally inactive when it came to repay the loan of Shylock. He did not try to appeal to his friends, relatives and other merchants to loan him some money even in interest and this way, he could have easily repaid the money to Shylock. It was not a huge amount of money. He helped many people in the past. So, at least, some people would love to help him in his time of distress. This is something that I cannot understand about Antonio in the Merchant of Venice.

Antonio’s inactivity might have come from his melancholy. He is sad most of time but we can find hardly any information about the cause of this sadness.

The Pilgrim’s Progress is a masterpiece not only of John Bunyan but also of the 17^th century England. John Bunyan wrote it in sometime after 1660 and it was published in 1678. Since then, this book has never gone out of print and it has been translated to around 200 languages. This shows that The Pilgrim’s Progress is one of the most popular books written ever in any language. It is a classic book.

I read it when I studied English Literature (I did my BA or Bachelor in English Literature) in University of Dhaka. I liked the book the first time I read it. Well, to be honest with you, anything related to the Civil War of England (of the 17^th century) and related to conflicts among the Anglicans, Catholics and Puritans attracted me a lot when I was a student of English Literature. I like to study about politics and history a lot. The Pilgrim’s Progress is more than a literary work and novel (if it is indeed a novel). In fact, I like to take it as a book on History, Religion and Politics of England of the second half of the 17^th century.

In the last few days, I again read The Pilgrim’s Progress. I reread the book after 12 years. English is not my mother tongue and 12 years ago, I was not so skilled in English like now. Yet, I remember that I did not have that much problem reading and understanding The Pilgrim’s Progress a decade ago. It is a large book but I enjoyed reading the book and I could finish it in just 3 days.

Have you read The Pilgrim’s Progress? What is your idea about this book?

I am sorry that I could not update this blog for the last few weeks. Well, I am preparing some materials for the blog. I like to thank all of you who have subscribed to the feed.

What do you want to have this blog? Please, let me know and I will try to write the things that you like to be featured here.

Pride and Prejudice is the most successful novel of Jane Austin. She wrote this novel more than two hundred years ago but it is still very popular in the world. The main reason behind its popularity is that Pride and Prejudice deals with something that is common to every society. Jane Austin has dealt with the subject of love and marriage and this something that is relevant to every society in every age. In our modern age, the matter of love and marriage has become more important because of media promotion all the time. The hero of the novel is Darcy and the heroin of the novel is Elizabeth. However, two other characters have got almost equal important from Jane Austin. They are Jane Bennet and Mr. Bingly.

Jane Bennet is the eldest of the Bennet sisters. She is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet and sister of Elizabeth. In the novel she is 22 years old and at the first part of the novel Jane gets a lot of importance from the author. In fact, Jane Austin has created this character into her own name. At the first, it is seen that Jane is the most beautiful girl among her sisters. She was also the prettiest girls who were present in the dancing party. She catches the eye of Mr. Bingley who comes from neighborhood. Mr. Bingley was considered to be an attractive man for all the young girls and their parents. He liked Jane and danced with Jane more than one time.

Charles Bingley was one year older than Jane. He is only 23 years old but a rich man and he was a friend of Darcy. At the beginning of the novel, a lot of attention is given by Jane Austin to Mr. Bingley. In fact, if we read first two or three chapters then we may have this idea that Charles Bingley is the hero of this novel. He likes Jane because Jane is beautiful and also Jane has good behavior.

If we want to talk about Jane and Bingley’s relationship then we should also talk about two other characters: Elizabeth and Darcy. Elizabeth had a lot of influence over her sister Jane. Elizabeth was younger than Jane but she was more matured and more intelligent. At the same time, she tried to convince that Jane should not be too much good with everyone. Whenever Jane needs some consulting she goes to Elizabeth and Elizabeth gives her good advice. On the other hand, Darcy is the closet friend of Mr. Bingley. Darcy also had the same kind of influence on Mr. Bingley that Elizabeth had on Jane.

Jane and Bingley fell in love with each other. I think the main reason is that the two characters have a lot of similarities between them. For example, Mr. Bingley is a gentle man and Jane is a gentle girl. Jane is very friendly with others and she always has good idea about other people. Even others are intolerable, she is patient and she tries not to look at the bad sides of other people and look only at the good sides. Mr. Bingley has almost the same ideas and he is also friendly and he likes to meet with other people. The relationship of Jane and Mr. Bingley had a smooth progress. Sometimes, there were some problems but most of the time it did not have any problem. For example, at first Bingley likes Jane and then this relationship became stronger but Bingley had to leave the area and suddenly there was a distance but in the end again Bingley came to Jane and relationship grew stronger. One important thing to note here is that Jane and Bingley had never any serious argument or quarrel. Their relationship was more influenced by outside people. The good thing about Jane was that Bingley’s sister did not dislike Jane although they disliked the family of Jane. They could not tolerate the bold attitude of Elizabeth.

In the end, we can say that the relationship between Bingley and Jane was a lovely and smooth one. Sometimes, it got boring for the readers as they did not have any fighting.

The trial scene or the judgment scene is the longest scene in the drama The Merchant of Venice which was written by William Shakespeare. This is the most important scene in this drama and it is one of the most interesting and attractive scene of any drama written by William Shakespeare. It is the climax of The Merchant of Venice where good prevails and bad evil get punished. Although the trial scene was mainly about the punishment and saving of Antonio but in the trial scene it was a fight between Portia and Shylock.

It was the condition of Antonio that everyone was concerned in the trial scene. Bassanio was prepared to a many times more of the original loan. Even the duke was sympathetic to Antonio and wish that Shylock forgets him from taking the flesh of Antonio. However, Shylock was not interested at this and he wanted to only take flesh from Antonio’s body. He was not interested to listening anything about mercy and all he wanted was revenge of all the insults he had suffered from Antonio and every other Christian in Venice. The first part of the trial scene was dominated by Shylock and everyone including the readers, viewers and audience think that there is no way to stop Shylock.

The arrival of Portia brings some hope to everyone but Portia in disguise of a lawyer supported Shylock’s claim that Shylock had all the rights to take pound of flesh from Antonio’s body. Hearing this Shylock got very happy and excited and praised the judge. However, when Portia said that Shylock has to take a pound a flesh without dropping any blood from Antonio’s body then everyone understood that Portia’s judgment was saving Antonio. In the end, Shylock lost the trial and judgment went against him. He suffered a lot and it was stated by the court that Shylock would lose all his property and he will have to convert as a Christian.

In the trial scene, we can see the conflict of idea of judgment of two religions. According to Judaism (Jews religion), justice means punishing the bad people. So, Shylock feels that he has suffered and he must get an eye for an eye. Eye for an eye or pit for a pit is the main idea of justice according to Jews religion. So, Shylock wanted this kind of justice and he wanted the flesh from the body of Antonio because he felt that it is the exact justice for him after suffering a lot of insults from all the Christians including Antonio.

On the other hand, Christianity has a softer approach to a justice and revenge. One famous idea of Jesus Christ is that if someone then put your right chick in front of that person. Christianity gives a lot of important in forgiving and mercy. Shakespeare has tried to show that the idea of justice of Christianity is better than the idea of justice of Judaism. So, Shakespeare has shown that Shylock became a Christian and this way Shylock got saved.

That trial seen is the fight between Portia and Shylock. All other characters watched the fighting between them. Shylock thought that he had won the trial and no one could have stopped him from taking revenge against Antonio. He was so sure that she started to celebrate very early and others could understand that he was a very bad person who did not care for humanity. On the other hand, Portia was a very smart person and she was determined to save Antonio.

The trial scene is a memorable one because of the strong dialogues from Shylock and from Portia. Some of the dialogues has become very popular and are seen common among the English people.

The Merchant of Venice written by William Shakespeare is a romantic comedy. So, we can easily understand that the topic of love will be very important in the Merchant of Venice as it is a romantic comedy. Indeed, love, marriage and friendship all of them have very important role in this drama. The drama revolves around the friendship of Antonio and Bassanio then we have the love of Portia and Bassanio and also of Lorenzo and Jessica. The two couples got married din the drama and the topic of friendship is very significant and important in the plot of the play.

If we talk about love then the first that should be considered is the love of Portia and Bassanio. Bassanio wanted to get married to Portia because she was a beautiful and wealthy woman. So, from this point of view, Bassanio can be accused of loving the beauty and wealth of Portia more than Portia herself. On the other hand, Bassanio really liked Portia and wanted to get married to her. So, for this he took a risk of putting Antonio at the mercy of the enemy Shylock. On the other hand, Bassanio also took the oath that if he failed to solve the mystery of the cascade she would never get married again. Portia was a romantic person and really liked Bassanio. She did not like all the princes and rich men who wanted to marry her. In stead, she wanted to get married with a nice man like Bassanio who was easy going and lovely.

If we look at the relationship between Lorenzo and Jessica it is a very interesting relationship. Jessica was a Jew and the daughter of Shylock. On the other hand, Lorenzo was friend of Antonio and Bassanio. Lorenzo liked Jessica and Jessica was too much annoyed from her father and she did not like any Jews man. In stead, she found a Christian man to be more attractive because she was too much annoyed so she ran away with Lorenzo.

One interesting thing of Merchant of Venice is that William Shakespeare has talked about the successful love and unsuccessful love both. He has talked about the love affair of unsuccessful person towards the end of the drama.

There is another couple that should be mentioned is Nerissa and Gratiano. Nerissa was Portia’s servant and friend and she got married with Gratiano. Shakespeare has talked very little about this couple.

The ring episode is interesting. Both Bassanio and Gratiano promised to their wives that they will not part with the wedding ring. However, they had to give the wedding rings to the lawyer and the clerk who saved the life of Antonio. They did not know that they gave the wedding rings to their wives who were in disguise. These wedding rings reflex faithfulness and loyalty in marriage. To the audience of Elizabethan age wedding ring was a very important thing and they could never imagine of parting with it.

In Merchant of Venice, we can see conflict between self interest and love. All the Christian characters and also Jessica loved to do good things to other people. Antonio risked his life for his friend Bassanio. When Bassanio heard that his friend was in deep trouble he even did not enjoy his couple life and came back to Venice. Gratiano, Lorenzo all of them were helpful to each other. On the other hand, Shylock was a very self-centered person. He only considered self interest and he was a selfish person and he did not care for other people. This conflict of self interest versus love for others is one of the main themes of Merchant of Venice.

Marriage

If we look at the treatment of marriage of Shakespeare in the Merchant of Venice then we can see two important things. The first thing is that Lorenzo and Jessica got married. Lorenzo was a Christina and Jessica was a Jew and they got married and they were happy. So, Shakespeare shows that people of two religions could get married and yet be happy. The second thing that we look at Shakespeare’s treatment of marriage in the Merchant of Venice is that Bassanio was from Venice and Portia was from Belmond. So, Shakespeare also supported the idea of two persons of two different cities getting married. Here, we have to remember that during the Elizabethan age most people used to get married within their city or within their even village. The same thing happens in Bangladesh even at the present time. Most people want to marriage within their district. They do not want to go far and most people do no want to go far and most people do not want to get married to people outside if the religion. So, Shakespeare has taken a very liberal attitude towards marriage and love in the Merchant of Venice.

Friendship is perhaps the strongest thing in Merchant of Venice. The friendship between Antonio and Bassanio was very deep. Antonio risked his life and took loan from the enemy Shylock to send Bassanio to get married with Portia. Even there was no guarantee that Bassanio would be successful because it depended on his solving the mystery of cascade. Yet, Antonio took the risk. On the other hand, when Bassanio heard that Antonio was in danger he lost all his happiness. He just owned the hand of Portia for marriage but yet he did not enjoy this matter at all. He became a very wealthy man by getting married to Portia but wealth was not important for him. He was only sad at that moment for his friend Antonio who was in danger only for helping him.

There is another topic that we should talk when it comes to friendship of love- hatred of Shylock against all the Christians. I have said earlier that Shylock was a self centered and selfish person. He did not understand what friendship is and what love is. To him, the only important thing was money and power. He cared only to crease his money and to be stronger in the society.

In conclusion, we can say that Shakespeare has treated the ideas of love, marriage and friendship very successfully in the drama Merchant of Venice.

Also read:

Portia in The Merchant of Venice

Trial Scene of The Merchant of Venice

It is often said that the Merchant of Venice of William Shakespeare does not have any hero but it has a heroine, Portia. Portia is perhaps the strong character in the Merchant of Venice. She is a good counterpart of Shylock who is the evil. If we look at the other leading male characters like Bassanio and Antonio we can find that they were not as strong as Portia who could fight the villain Shylock. So, Portia is a very impressive and exceptional of character in English drama. She is one of the strongest characters made by William Shakespeare.

The first impression we get of Portia is that she is a beautiful and wealthy women. She is the news of her beauty and wealth all over the world and people from different countries came to the hope of getting married with her. Thus, Portia was a very attractive woman to everyone. To get married to her, princes from Scotland and Morocco came. Bassanio even made Antonio take loan from his enemy Shylock just to go and test his fortune to get married with Portia. Thus, the beauty and wealth of Portia made her an exceptional figure. There was the rule that any man who could solve the mystery of the Cascade would be able to marry her and enjoy her wealth.

Although Portia was very rich, at the same time she was very romantic. When sweeter from different countries came to seek her for marriage she gave interesting opinions about them. It is clear that she liked Bassanio who was a good man. Bassanio was not a rich or powerful man. He was not a prince or even he was not a big trader. He was only the friend of Antonio. This was his main identity in the society of Venice. Even Portia did not care for this and she thought that Bassanio was the perfect man for her and she was eager that Bassanio can solve the mystery of the Cascade and get married with her. This clearly shows that Portia gives more value to love and romance than wealth and power.

Portia was a very smart and skilled person. She was educated and the same time she was clever person. She could out with Shylock in his own game. This is a lot of mental strength and also a lot of knowledge and wisdom. Portia had all the wisdom that a woman can dream of. She knows what to say in which condition and this smartness in the end saved Antonio.

Portia was a very brave woman. When she needed she could be soft, when she needed she could be brave. When she heard the news of Antonio then she decided that she must try to save Antonio because Antonio had fallen into danger only by helping Bassanio to come to Portia. So, she took the disguise of a man and went to Venice and then fought with Shylock head to head and toe to toe. Shylock was an evil character and he was a very powerful person. Antonio or Bassanio or even the duke could not convince him or could not even make him little bit softer towards Antonio. But Portia had the mental courage to fight against Shylock and in the end she successfully defeated Shylock.

One of the qualities that attract the readers towards Portia is that she was an obedient daughter and at the same time she was a very loyal and obedient wife. She agreed with the wish of her father about the matter of cascade. She waited patiently to get married. If she wanted she could easily told Bassanio or another person what was the secret of the secret of the secret of three cascades and could get married but she waited patiently and even allow other princes to try for it. She was loyal and obedient but at the same time she had firmness, she had firm characteristics, she was brave and she was ready to fight with anyone. She was also ready to fight with injustice. This quality of her really makes her exception.

Portia is one of the finest characters created by William Shakespeare. Normally, the characters of Shakespeare are strong. If we look at Lady Macbeth then we can see that she was a very strong character. On the other hand, the characters of the comedy are not that strong but I think that Portia is an exception to this matter. Portia was not only strong but Portia had many qualities that I have talked about. I have already said that she was beautiful, she was a romantic person, smart skill and educated and she was also brave. All these characteristics have made her into a very exceptional woman of Elizabethan time. I have no doubt that there were very few women in that time in England and Europe who possessed remarkable qualities like Portia.

In conclusion, I like to repeat that Portia is a very good character and characters like Portia are very rare in the drama.

Also read:

Trial Scene of The Merchant of Venice

Love, Marriage and Friendship in the Merchant of Venice

Writing a book is not a easy thing. It takes a lot of effort and months of trying to write a book. Of course, computer can do many things and imitate human but one of things that computer lacks until now is human creativity such as writing an original writing and writing a book. Computer programmers are trying to solve this problem and artificial intelligence is something which deals with concept that computer can become creative just like human being. Philip M. Parker is doing similar research and he has done something which ha taken the media world by surprise. I saw a report in New York Times that Philip M. Parker has created 200,000 books with the help of computer.

According to New York Times report, Philip M. Parker has used artificial intelligence and computer algorithm to write some books collecting information from internet. You know that in internet there are many information which is in the public domain and are free to be used. So, Philip M. Parker has created computer program and they search internet and on different topics they collect information and create a book. This way he has now compiled 200,000 books with this computer program.

In fact, Philip M. Parker has taken this matter very seriously and he has even set up an account in Amazon.com. So, what Philip M. Parker is doing is that he is trying to show the world that there can be many books on different topics.

Of course, there has been very little research done on the book created by this man and we do not know how the books are useful or not. However, Philip M. Parker has admitted in the New York Times report that if someone is good in finding information about internet then that person should not buy the book. This book is for those people who are not that much tech savy and who will not try to go into the difficulty of finding information from internet. In fact, many of his books are published on demand. That means that if there is a consumer who want to buy the book then this book will be printed and sent to the consumer. This can be helpful on topics that are rare and have limited demand for the books. For example, there are some topics that very few people are interested and may be 10 copies of that book will be sold and may be no book is on this topic. So, the solution of Philip M. Parker can be very valuable about this kind of thing.

When I first read this report in New York Times I got a bit shocked and the first thing that occurred to me was that if the software of Philip M. Parker will finish the days of writing books. In fact, I am a professional blogger and writer and I earn my livelihood by writing. So, naturally if any computer software can write books like me then like many writers I will be out of business and will have to find new ways of earning money which is really very difficult at this age.

Related Article

He Wrote 200,000 Books (but Computers Did Some of the Work)

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Elizabeth Bennet is the central character of the novel Pride and Prejudice. I don’t need to remind you that Pride and Prejudice is one of the most popular English Novels of all time and it is read around the world by millions of people each year.

Elizabeth is perhaps the best character created by Jane Austen. Elizabeth Bennet comes from an ordinary background but she is a strong personality. She is smart and intelligent. She is not as pretty as her elder sister Jane Bennet but she is attractive. She was an exceptional person compared to her age. While most girls would consider getting married as the only goal of life, Elizabeth did not like to run after men.

Mr. Collins wanted to marry her but she refused because she knew that Mr. Collins was a shallow and boring man. Mr. Collins had a stable good income. She got married with Darcy in the end but before that she made it sure that she was getting married with the right man.

As a daughter Elizabeth is more close to her father than her mother. Mr. Bennet likes Elizabeth most because he thinks that she is the best of her five daughters. So, he admires her a lot and he gives a lot of importance to her ideas. So, when Mrs. Bennet insists that Elizabeth must get married with Mr. Collins then Mr. Bennet came forward and said Elizabeth from a big disaster. Mr. Bennet said that if Elizabeth gets married with Mr. Collins then he will not have good relationship with her. In fact, Elizabeth wanted this thing too. So, this way Mr. Bennet only cleverly supported Elizabeth.

As a sister Elizabeth is a very influential person. She influences all the sister. She is two year younger than the eldest sister Jane but Jane always depended on her ideas. So, whenever Jane needed to discuss something she came to Elizabeth. Of course, Lydia was not such a fan of Elizabeth because Lydia was a dancing type of person. On the other hand, Elizabeth was a serious person and that was why Lydia was not fond of her.

Elizabeth has a very bold attitude towards life. She is not a gentle girl like Jane. She is not afraid to tell what she thinks. That is why, she has conflicts with some characters in the novel. She has conflict with her mother. Her mother does not like her and does not think that she is a pretty girl. She has also conflict with Darcy because Darcy insulted her with his pride. It took a lot of time for her to forgive Darcy. This shows that Elizabeth is a tough person with a tough mentality and when he gets annoyed with someone it take a lot of time for that person to get the forgiveness from her.

The mistake about Darcy is perhaps the most important thing in the novel. At first, Darcy insulted Elizabeth by refusing to dance with her and Darcy commented that Elizabeth was not that much beautiful. This offended Elizabeth a lot and it is natural because this kind of comment would offend any girl especially in a dance party. However, this bitterness blinded Elizabeth’s eyes about Darcy and she continued this prejudice against Darcy for a long long time. This only made her own life more bitter. Darcy proposed to her for marriage and she refused. So, this matter created regret in her later that she felt that she could have become the wife of a very rich person.

Elizabeth also did a mistake about George Wickham. She hated Darcy and she thought that Darcy acted badly with Wickham. In fact, Wickaham was a clever person and she pretended to Elizabeth that Darcy has done very big injustice with Wickham. However, Elizabeth did not try to investigate more and she got bad idea about Darcy and she continued her prejudice about Darcy for more time. This mistake proved to be very costly for Elizabeth. She later found out that Wickham was a very bad person and he even made Lydia crazy and Lydia foolishly eloped with Wickham. Wickham was not that much interested to get married to Lydia and then Darcy had pre-intervened and ensured that Wickham gets married to Lydia and this way the honor of Elizabeth’s family got saved with the help of Mr. Darcy.

The character of Elizabeth changed a lot from the beginning to end of the novel. At first, Elizabeth disliked Darcy and she disliked many things. Gradually, she tried to investigate and find out the reality about Darcy. This matter shows that Elizabeth was a smart and intelligent girl. She was not that kind of person who forms an idea and sticks to it. She tried always to update her views and ideas about the world and this makes her a very attractive character to the readers.

If you are a freelance writer and you are looking for news about freelance works then one of the places that I should direct you is this link:

http://www.aboutfreelancewriting.com/jobs/currentjobs.htm

It is maintained by Anne Wayman and she updates it 3 times a week (Monday, Wednesday and Friday). They are basically some links of freelance work postings and ads of other websites but it is very useful. It does not matter from which country you are browsing but it might help you.

I am happy that thanks to OLPC laptops, some people in rural Nepal might have access to Internet.

I love to write and I try to write a lot. In fact, I have written over 3000 entries for my blogs in the last two years. Thus, on an average, I have written nearly 5 entries everyday. I know that there are many bloggers who write 10/15/20 or even more entries each day and some of them are really successful. Well, I feel that I should read a lot first and thus I have been reading a lot for the last two years. I have been writing continuously since 1997 and it is almost 11 years now. I have written for newspapers, magazines, TV and radio, Internet. I have also done a lot of ghost writing. Still, I feel that writing it not that easy.

Of course, typing is very easy but writing is difficult. One reason may be that I mainly write in English language (second language). My mother tongue is Bangla but my working language is English and for the last 2 years, I had hardly written anything in Bengali. This is perhaps a big tragedy for many writers living in the third world countries. One of the problems that I often face while writing in English is that I find it extremely difficult to find a particular word or phrase at the right time. This struggle often takes the away the energy and interest and I have to try a lot to find my rhythm. Of course, if I do not care for quality then it is not a big problem but I try to maintain a minimum standard. At least, I like to believe that I do so.

I recently attended a fair in my city. There, I saw many companies showcasing their products. One thing I liked about the companies and it was that they were focused with their work. I guess that writers often distracted in life. Of course, writing is different from other works. You want to write something but you are not satisfied. You have thought a lot of and believed that you can write a masterpiece but then when you sit to writing then you lose your track. I guess that this matter happens to almost every writer. When I was younger, these things caused a lot of unease for me. Now, I have learnt to deal with this.

For pursuing the career of writing, I had struggled a lot in my life. In my darkest period, I got a lot of inspiration from the writing of Alex Haley. I am quoting from him:

Many a young person tells me he wants to be a writer. I always encourage such people, but I also explain that there’s a big difference between being a writer and writing. In most cases these individuals are dreaming of wealth and fame, not the long hours alone at the typewriter. You’ve got to want to write, I say to them, not want to be a writer.

The reality is that writing is a lonely, private and poor- paying affair. For every writer kissed by fortune, there are thousands more whose longing is never requited. Even those who succeed often know long periods of neglect and poverty. I did.

If you want to read the full essay, visit this link:

The Shadowland of Dreams

I am lucky that I was never a luxurious person in my life. I guess that this is the most difficult part of writing. It is not easy to sacrifice all the comfort of life and embrace tension.

In the end, writing is difficult because life is difficult.

‘A Grammarian's Funeral’ is not a religious poem. It talks about the Renaissance spirit. We know that Renaissance took place in Europe against religious orthodoxy. Well, ‘A Grammarian's Funeral’ is not against religion. Even, it talks of God and good ways. However, the path that the grammarian followed was a bit different than traditional Christianity. To the grammarian, knowledge was everything.

I feel that there is some resemblance with the spirit of Buddhism. I am not sure if Robert Browning was that much familiar with the main teachings of Buddhism or not but I feel that there is striking similarity between ‘A Grammarian's Funeral’ and Buddhism. According to Lord Buddha, knowledge can bring salvation and the grammarian believed in the same thing. In fact, he followed this teaching in his own life. Then, Buddha said that true happiness does not come in luxury and comfort but it comes in conquering sadness and pain. I guess that the grammarian could do that in the best way. He did not care that he did not have money but he cared for only knowledge and thus he was a happy man.

That is why, I feel that the grammarian is a nice example of a true hero of Buddhist spirit. Do you agree with me?

Robert Browning is one of my most favorite poets in English literature. This is a touching poem reflecting Browning’s admiration for Renaissance spirit. I studied this poem in the third year in university and I was deeply moved with this poem. This is one of the poems that has become a part of my life. It’s not that I recite it a lot or even read it a lot but I think of the poem ‘A Grammarian's Funeral’ a lot. Today, out of curiosity, I searched about it in Google and found very little discussion about it. Well, it disappointed me some as I expected that there would be a lot of discussion about the poem in Internet.

The poem opens a grave note:

Let us begin and carry up this corpse,

Singing together.

Leave we the common crofts, the vulgar thorpes

Each in its tether

Sleeping safe on the bosom of the plain,

Cared-for till cock-crow:

The students of the Grammarian are carrying his dead body and they are going to bury him on the hill. Well, they are not students but they are the disciples of the Grammarian. They respected the Grammarian despite the fact that he was not rich. This is interesting to me. Teachers are respected in all the ages although they don’t have a lot of wealth. Their wealth is their knowledge and with their knowledge, they can teach their students new things.

Another thing that attracts me of the poem ‘A Grammarian's Funeral’ is the fact that the Grammarian did not study anything that could make him rich. I mean he studied humanities not science or commerce. In our own age, studying humanities (or Arts) is not a cool thing in many parts of the world. The money is in science and in commerce. So, most students and their parents tend to neglect the subjects of humanities.

Now, take a look at the next few lines of the poem:

Look out if yonder be not day again

Rimming the rock-row!

That's the appropriate country; there, man's thought,

Rarer, intenser,

Self-gathered for an outbreak, as it ought,

Chafes in the censer.

Here, we can see a distinction drawn between ordinary people and the grammarian. The grammarian was a man of noble sprit and virtue and his place is surely not with the ordinary people. He was higher than others because he dedicated his life for knowledge. In our age, acquiring knowledge is a good thing. You can become rich and famous and even powerful and respectable with knowledge but at that time, there was hardly anything to gain by dedicating a life for knowledge. There was no research grant, no publishing deal or scholarship or teaching position for people like the grammarian. He does not mind the limitations and obstacles in life. He just knows that he has a mission in life and that is acquiring and imparting knowledge. It is mission, passion and perhaps religion. There is a sense of fulfillment through knowledge.

I will write more about this poem in this blog in the coming days. You can subscribe to the feed of the blog. I urge all of you to take part in the discussion about this poem.

Yes, it is like coming back to the basic again. I started this blog 23 months ago and that time, I was struggling in my career. I was trying to establish myself as a freelance writer in Internet. Internet has eradicated the limitations of distance and I really understood this matter. I did not become successful as a freelance writer but I have experienced considerable success in blogging and so, I am not struggling anymore. This blog did not take off because I had no idea how to make a blog successful. Now, I have some healthy experience and skills about blogging and I am deeply grateful to God for that.

So, I have come back to the blog from where I started. I am again going to write about literature. I studied English literature for my BA. So, I know about most of the major poets, dramatists and writers of English literature. Of course, studying for exam is never a very enjoyable thing. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed reading Charles Dickens and George Orwell. I also loved William Wordsworth.

My first passion is not English literature- rather it is Bangla/Bengali literature. I started this blog with the goal of presenting Bangla literature to the world. You will not find a lot of materials about Bengali literature in Internet. Well, I know that I cannot do it as I really have no time these days. Nevertheless, I want to write about Bangla literature. I want to write about English literature. I want to write original short stories and I want to translate short stories.

So, come back as often as you can read.

By the way, I am going to change Feedburner subscription and email subscription. So, if you want to get updated by email and feed then you should subscribe again.

Google is always looking for new markets. I feel that Google has now found a good market segment. There are many small business companies around the world who do not have strong (or even any) presence in Internet. You know that these most people search about almost everything in Google and other search engines. This is a huge market but largely absent in cyberspace.

I like the way Google was pursuing this new market segment. To read more, visit here: AdWords and local markets.

This was my second blog and it was my most favorite blog. I tried to create a healthy amount of content in this blog first about Bangla literature and then about blogging. Well, I feel sad to see that I have neglected this blog totally. I know that I cannot be back again as much as I can but from now, I like to post at least once a week- hopefully.

Thanksgiving is tomorrow and that is why everyone is happy in the US. However, there are stories that make people not so happy. Read for yourself about Baby in the Oven in which a tragic life of a baby has been described. The mother put the baby in the oven and for that she was arrested and prosecuted.

Read More:

Really, it is a pity that we have so many spammers in Internet who are always trying to earn money at the expense of common people. The spammers try every way possible to earn some money. Sometimes, they use legitimate ways while often they use not so legitimate ways. Their only target is to earn money online. So, they do not develop content and they just develop spam. They do not care if others read or not read their spam. Rather, they just care to earn more money.

Here are just few ways that spammers try to earn money online:

1. Send spam mails containing nothing but advertisements of different products. Their goal is to spread the message of a product to millions of people in Internet. Fortunately, most people have become smart now but still some people will buy their products.
2. Sometimes, the spam mails contain adware or spywares and this way the spammers collect information about your surfing habit.
3. Phishing is a great example of illegal activity in Internet. They just do not stop. I often get emails from phishers who pretend to be some big banks on which I do not have any account.
4. Spammers make many worthless blogs and then fill up with garbage content that has no value to anyone. They do it to get ranked high in search engine results. It has become a big business. Fortunately for us who try to develop real contents, search engines are fighting back and trying to pinpoint spam contents.
5. Cyber thieves would send you emails that they are very rich and have millions of dollars in Nigeria or another country and they want your help and transfer the money in your account and give you 25% of the money. This is a very dangerous game. If you get any email of this kind never ever go for it.
6. Phony lottery companies send mail to you that you have won millions of dollars. The funny part is that they even do not know your address and even your name but they have decided that you have won the lottery. How it is possible unless they want to con you?

I really feel sad to see that the number of spammers is not decreasing in Internet. The worst part is that we live in a world now where money is the only important thing. It does not matter how you earn the money as long as you are earning it.

Now in Internet, most people who want to earn money are familiar with Adsense. If you look at the explosive growth of professional blogging then you will find that Google Adsense is the key reason behind such growth. Thousands of websites and blogs earn money (monetize) through Adsense program. I do not need to explain in details about Adsense as I am sure that most of you are aware of it. I am trying to discuss here about the matter that Adsense is indeed the best source of earning money in Internet. Here are few reasons:

1. You can easily get accepted in Adsense. In fact, Google accepts people from almost all the countries on earth. They do not bother if you are in Asia or America. They also accept almost everyone who apply provided that the applicant’s website or blog does not violate any ToS of Adsense program. Google also accepts a site within a day or two. So, you do not need to wait a lot.
2. Implementation: Implementation of Adsense is very easy. You do not need to become a tech guru to insert Adsense codes in your website or blog.
3. Relevant Ads: I think that this is the strongest feature of Adsense. If you write about laptops in your website or blog then your visitors will surely find advertisements related to laptops.
4. Good Income: Many times, I have read in websites, blogs and even in forums that publishers earn highest amount of money by Adsense. Yes, there are some exceptions for some website, blog or forum owners but exception is exception- not the rule.
5. Blogger: If you are using Blogger then you will notice that Adsense has great integration with Bloggers. I am a very big fan of Blogger and I love the way Adsense works.
6. Great support from Google: Yes, I have to admit that Adsense has great support team. They response very quickly and effectively.
7. Ideal for everyone: It does not matter how many visitors you have. You can always get accepted from Adsense whether you are small or big. It also does not matter what kind of topic your website or blog has. Adsense covers everything as long as there is any commercial value of your topic.

Well, this is surely my personal experience only but I know that I am right because most websites, blogs or forums that I come across the Internet, use Adsense for earning money. If Adsense was not the best then it would become so overwhelmingly popular.

This is a very attractive thing for all of us. We all want to earn money be it online or offline. Earning money in Internet is a great thing. You do not need to go any place and you are in the comfort of your home and you can work according to your wanted- any time you like. Many times, I find advertisements promising a fortune by working from home. Well, it is true that many of these advertisements are nothing but scam. The reality is that if you want to earn money then you should never look for a short cut.

Just think of real life. Can you earn money with a short cut? Have you seen any person working just 2 hours a day and becoming rich? It is impossible even in the illegal way. Anyway, I feel that earning money online is just as easy or difficult like earning money off line. Yes, it is true that you do not need to go out of home when you are earning money online. It is also true that you can set your hours and then work.

However, don’t miss the third reality. Earning money online is like being on your own. Most of the time, you have to work independently and then earn money in Internet. There are hardly any full time jobs you can find in Internet. I often feel that working in Internet is some how similar to the works of taxi drivers. They go out very early in the morning and then work until midnight and someday they have good income and in the next day not so good. However, they have to work everyday and they cannot afford to be selective.

In Internet, I have seen many times that people think that earning money online is easy and you can earn a lot of money very quickly without doing any hard work. From this idea, many people entered in to the world of blogging only to see their dreams to be shattered within a few months.

The reality is that just like a taxi driver you have to work for many hours a day and some days you will earn good money from your earning sources while the next day may become terrible. Earning money online is not just writing some articles and putting some advertisements. You have to promote your website or blog and at the same time attract Google. Believe me, it is tough and you have to give a lot of time and effort in the initial months.

Almost every week, I receive two or three emails by scam artists who promise me a fortune as they have no one to give their money. Or every week, some phony lottery companies send me emails stating that I am the winner of a lottery competition and I am entitled to get millions of dollars. Sometimes, people fall victim to this kind scam. Now, I really feel that people fall victim to the scams because they want to earn money quickly and become rich instantly.

Some websites ask you to create content and in return they offer you a part of the revenue. If you are a newbie in Internet then surely it will give you some good exposure but hardly anyone can become rich through this way. Actually, this way, you cannot earn the amount of a full time job. Of course, there are exceptions but exceptions are never rules.

I hope you don’t feel discouraged about earning money online after reading this post. In fact, I have to say that there was never a better time for earning money online than 2007. Now, there are many opportunities to earn money. I am going to cover some of them in the coming days in this blog. However, I have to say it again that there is a lot of way to earn money online but there is no short cut or quick way to earn money online.

This is a question I often come across in different blogs and forums. Some bloggers say that you have post frequently while others feel that you should not post a lot. Now, let us see the arguments of these two sides.

Those who feel that you post a lot of entries everyday argue that this is the best way of catching the attention of Google. I agree with this view. The more entries mean you have more pages for Google to index. It also helps you to cover more news items about a particular thing in your blog. For example, now World Cup Cricket is rocking many countries on earth. I am trying to cover it in my professional blog. I am trying to post as many entries possible everyday and it is really paying off. I have witnessed 3 times increase in the pageviews of the blog in just 30 days.

On the other hand, those who want to post less entries in their blogs argue that posting a lot of entries will only destroy your blog’s quality. I hate to admit it but I agree with this idea. It is a reality that everyday if you give 4 hours for blogging and if you write just one entry in these four hours instead of writing 4 entries in 4 hours then the quality of your blog will improve. Yes, it is true and good for the ideal world but our world is not ideal. Of course, if you are an outstanding writer then you will surely get your readers sooner or later but for the average bloggers it wont work well.

So, my verdict is for posting as many entries as possible everyday. However, I am not asking you destroy your quality in writing. I am just asking to make a balance so that you have some quality but at the same time you can post more frequently. I know that it will take time for your to understand and find out the right balance. So, do not be impatient and keep blogging.

In the last one year, I have come across many blogs and bloggers in the blogosphere. I have also visited many forums on blogging. When I started blogging, I had fear too and I am stating here 10 worst fears of a newbie blogger based mostly on my own experience.

1. Fear of a new Thing: Most of us are afraid of new things. Blogging is a new field and even 3 years ago, hardly any of us had any idea about blogs and blogging. About my own fears, I wrote in SouthAsiaBiz:

Getting some traffic was the toughest part for me and in my heart; I got totally frustrated and scared. What if no one reads my blog? What if I do not get hits even in 6 months? What if no one links me? What if I receive a lot of criticism for my entries? I wrote 15-20 comments in other blogs but some days I did not have even one comment in my own blog. My fear and frustration intensified because South Asian business is not exactly a very popular topic that would attract a lot of visitors.

Yes, fear can take away much of your energy. Getting readers is not as easy as many people think. You have to try a lot to get readers everyday.

2. Over expectation: We often read fantastic stories of ordinary people earning thousands of dollars by blogging. Just think of Darren Rowse’s story of Becoming a ProBlogger. He was a very ordinary person before becoming a successful problogger. Now, he is one of the richest bloggers on earth. Many newbie bloggers want to earn more than $5000 or $10,000 per month right away. However, 99.99% of the bloggers even cannot earn this money even after one year of blogging.

3. Shame: I really sometimes feel that blogging is not for shy person. You cannot satisfy everyone with your writing and often you will get severely criticized. It has happened to me often- especially when any of my entries could make into the home page of Fark, Reddit and Shoutwire. Some of the attacks were too bitter and personal to swallow. Sometimes, I felt much ashamed to be criticized in such a bad way. Don’t forget the fear of making a mistake.

4. Google: Yes, getting the attention of Google was a big fear for me for many months. Now, after one year, I know how to attract traffic from Google but in the beginning it was like an impossible task for me.

5. Blogging Daily: Well, blogging is supposed to be a regular work. In fact, bloggers have no holiday and at the beginning, posting regular entries was a big obstacle for me. I did not want to miss blogging even for a single day. I felt that may be some readers would come and would not see any fresh entry in my blog.

6. Adsense earning: Having less than $10 income in your Adsense income after the first month of blogging can scare you a lot. Specially, if you have entered into blogging with the idea of earning some extra money then it is a terrible feeling. I know that some bloggers get frustrated and even leave blogging.

7. Nothing to write: I did not have this fear at all but I know that some newbie bloggers have this fear. They are afraid that someday they may discover that they have covered everything on their field and there is nothing to write. Well, I do not agree with this fear. Knowledge is endless.

8. Getting lost: There are so many successful blogs in almost every area that it is not impossible for a newbie blogger to be afraid of getting lost in the blogging crowd. And, do not forget that it takes a lot of time before a newbie blogger can attract some traffic and comments in their blogs.

9. Blogging jargon: If you read some blogs about blogging and visit some forums then often you can find that many bloggers and visitors are talking in a language that you are not familiar with. They are talking about SEO, design etc and using many words that you never heard. Well, this is a big initial shock for many newbie bloggers.

10: Programming and Coding: For many newbie bloggers, design and programming may be a big fear- especially if you are using your own domain and hosting instead of a free blog host and software then it can give you a tough time. That is why, I always recommend everyone to use Blogger. Google has really created the easiest platform to blog.

Are you a newbie blogger? Are you afraid of anything? Then let us know in the comment section.

Jiah Khan can speak English very fluently as she lives in the UK. You cannot find a lot about her in Internet. Mehdi Hassan has written an informative article in this regard:

All about Jiah Khan: The latest sizzler of Bollywood in Nishabd

If you are a Bollywood fan then you can read this article. Jiah Khan can go only up from here.

One of my favorite past time is to type against time. I mean that in order to increase my typing speed, often I type in PC about any topic and count the minutes. For example, sometimes, I write about a topic for 20 minutes and I write whatever I like and then after 20 minutes I try to find out how many words could I type. It has a good blessing. It not only increase my typing speed but also increases my thinking speed. Because of this matter, I can think faster than before. Well, it is not so easy and when I started it nearly 2 years ago, I could just type 10 words per minute or sometimes just 8 words. Now, it has increased significantly. I can type more than 30 words per minute in this way. Of course, my typing speed is over 60 words per minute but it happens when I type something not write. Writing is a different matter and of course blogging is different too. In blogging, while I type I have to be very careful if I am making any mistake. I have to also think and try to write a sentence in a beautiful. Grammatical correction is not enough. I have to focus on making the language simple but beautiful. I have to think of the topic and think of reaction of the readers.

However, I am happy that my speed has increased a lot in 2 years of continuous trying. I feel that typing speed is vital for success in blogging. If you cannot type fast then you cannot write enough in your blog and that is not a good thing. I really wish that every blogger and every writer take this matter seriously.

I have seen many people in my society who want to be a writer but does not want to give importance to typing speed. Of course, here, many people still write with pen and paper but I have totally stopped writing on a paper. I just use computer and it is surely a great blessing. I can correct anyway I like and I can also save documents. My hand writing is terrible and that is why many times, others have problems about reading my writings. So, I am very happy that others do not have any problem about reading my typing.

Blogging is gradually becoming typing against time. Look at the top blogs. They post so many entries and cover amny things in their field. That is why many people read those blogs. So, the bloggers covering these blogs have to type fast. Otherwise, they would not be able to cove so many entries every day.

So, if you are a new blogger, I would recommend you that you spend sometime everyday and try to improve your typing speed.