Shyness My Shield Summary - Degree 1st Sem English Material Pdf

Class: Degree 1st year

Sem: Degree 1st Sem

Subject: English
State: Telangana

Lesson: Shyness my Shield

Topic: Shyness my Shield Summary pdf

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About Author:

The Essay “Shyness My Shield” was written by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (M. K. Gandhi) and extracted from Mahatma Gandhi’s autobiography, “The Story of My Experiments with Truth”. He was born to K. Gandhi and Putlibai Gandhi at Porbandar on 2 October 1869 and died on 30 January 1948 in New Delhi. Gandhi travelled to many countries like Africa and London but he felt reluctant (hesitate) to speak in public. He recollects all the incidents of his frequent attempts and failures to deliver a speech. At last, Gandhi claimed that his shyness became his shield.

SHYNESS MY SHIELD SUMMARY: -

In the story of Shyness my Shield, we see three characters mainly. They are Mk. Gandhi, Mr. Hills and Dr. Allinson. When Gandhi was studying law in London, he became a union member of a vegetarian society. He was working as an executive member and decided to attend every meeting of the society. As he was an executive member he had to speak and address the public in the meeting. At that time the vegetarian society faced a serious problem of the different opinions between Mr. Hills and Dr. Allinson.

Mr Hill was the chairman of the society and also an orthodox Christian (puritan). Dr. Allinson was also an important member of society. He was a fair man and many members were his supporters. He was advocating that “Artificial methods of birth control were dangerous. Dr. Allinson was against the puritan views. As he is against the morals preached by Puritans. So, Mr. Hill wanted to remove Dr. Allinson from the committee. At that time Gandhi also did not like the idea of the Artificial Birth Control Movement. He didn't want to support the decision of Mr. Hill. In a vegetarian society, anyone could be a member, if he was participating in vegetarianism. 

Gandhi wanted to motion(oppose) the proposal of the hill. So he wrote down his thoughts on a piece of paper and tried to speak for the first time in public. But he failed in his attempt of delivering a speech. So, someone else read his speech. But he was too shy to speak and never opened his mouth. Gandhi thinks that others can speak better than him and he also developed an inferiority complex thinking in him.

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In the voting, Dr. Allinson lost and was expelled from society. Gandhi felt ridiculous and resigned from society. In one more incident, he was invited to speak at a meeting in Ventnor. Once again, he tried to read the written speech, but again he failed in his second attempt and he was unable to move forward.

Gandhi made one last effort for public speech in England. It was made on the eve of his departure for India. He invited all his friends for dinner in Holborn restaurant and tried to address them. During the dinner, he began with a humorous anecdote. But he failed to create an impression. So, he sat by thanking the guests.

Thus, he was unable to develop the art of public speaking when he was in England. But as he travelled to South Africa, he could able to learn the art of public speaking. He overcomes his shyness but not completely. Gandhiji didn’t believe that his quiet was negative. He suffered initially but later benefited from shyness. His hesitancy in speech had become a pleasure to him. It taught him the economy of words. He claims that silence is a part of spiritual discipline. He also said that discourse was a waste of time. So, “Speech is a silence is Golden”. 

Finally, he said in reality his shyness had served as a protection for him and his shyness helped him to grow and also search for truth.

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