Vyasa and Vighneshwara

Vyaasanum Vighneswaranum by Anand

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Reading Anand is always a different experience, as he is not discussing people and their everyday problems. He is more concerned with history and the formation of different discursive practices and episteme. Here also, the author is discussing the various features of knowledge formation. There are two parts for this work: krithy (work of art) and kalam (time). In the first part, he is discussing about Nishada Purana, a distinct work which is believed to have existed in the past. As to our knowledge, there is no such purana as Nishada Purana.. and it is not easy to guess whether the writer is talking about an imaginative idea, or a historic instance. The second part as well, he is talking about a work named 'Nagara vadhu' written by Vardhamana. Here also, it is not clear to understand, whether it is a fact or fiction.

In the first part, the author is talking about the story of Ekalavya, the story mentioned in Mahabharatha. The author is trying to make sense why Ekalavya denounced the knowledge he has acquired by cutting his forefinger. Here, there is a clear discussion on 'knowledge and freedom." The discussion has unthinkable dimensions as a dialogue happens between Ekalavya who denounced his knowledge for freedom and Abhimanyue who denounced his freedom to prove his knowledge.

In the second part, the author is discussing the political struggle between Vajji and Magadha; one is following monarchy and the other oligarchy (or even democracy). Magadha wanted to destroy Vajji as it is following a distinct form of government. At one instance, Buddha says to Magadhan diplomat, 'As long as assemblies and councils take decisions based on common will of the people and respect elders, depressed people and women, nobody can destroy Vajji.' Then, the king came to the conclusion that if they destroy Vajji from within, or in other words, if their ideals were discarded by their own people, then he can conquer the country (in fact Vajji is not even a in their own words). The decay leads to a situation where the members of the supreme council forced Ambapali, the heroine to accept prostitution in the name of "national interest." Is this not what is happening nowadays?





View all my reviews

Shirley Temple- Condolences

“Shirley Temple was the rage then with her golden ringlets and her toothy smile. All the little girls copied her. Our school hung her picture on the wall behind the piano. We had in our class another Shirley. A Scot with pink cheeks and yellow ringlets. When the dignitaries arrived, it was always Shirley who carried up the bouquet.

Once she was asked to read a poem that I had composed and when the visitor asked who wrote it, our principal said, Shirley of course, she is a combination of beauty and brains, and then there was from the Governor’s wife a special kiss. What a bright little moppet, she said.” (From My Story, Kamala Das).

It may be because through Kamala’s use of Shirley’s name to talk about racial discrimination in the school that somehow I developed a negative kind of attitude regarding Shirley Temple, though she didn’t mean any harm in associating the Scot Shirley with the celebrity….

However, when I came to know about the celebrity Shirley Temple, I instantly admired her. Condolences!


Image Courtesy: Google Images

Happy Valentine's Day!

Yea, it is jjjjist like any other day, just a day and night like any other day& night.... but the heart says, no murmurs something... donno know what it is.. The voice is unclear as the brain reminds me it is just a cultural construct, a bourgeoisie trap, a corporate game to exploit the customers… but the heart mourns helplessly...

To all people who misses somebody/something in their life.....

Happy Valentine's Day!


Image courtesy: Neelakaasham Pachakkadal Chuvanna Bhoomi Malayalam Movie

Online Resources for English Language Learning

Online Resources: English Grammar

Learning English now is very easy as there are many reliable resources on the web which will help us any student of English irrespective of their level. Some selected websites has been given here.

www.englishtown.com


Englishtown is a reliable source in learning English professionally. Their trainers will give the students a holistic approach to language learning. They are giving training on Business English, Industry specific courses, TOEFEL& TOEIC.

public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/index.html

The site gives a comprehensive list of common errors in English, which has been taken from Paul Brians' "Common Errors in English Usage." It is a guide where we can see almost all the issues addressed. The highlight is that some other good sources are also mentioned at the end.

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl

Anyone who wants to get an overall picture about language and style, I would suggest owl.english.purdue.edu. Along with grammar, the site provides instructions on general writing, research, teaching, ESL etc.

www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/

As we know, BBC is an authentic source regarding English language. For anyone who wants to learn Standard English, BBC is a must.


www.tolearnenglish.com/

Contrary to other language sites, what is attractive about this site is that it contains language games, jokes etc. Apart from that there is a discussion forum also.

www.drgrammar.org

The site, as the name shows is a doctor to treat our English diseases. It is maintained by UNI Department of Languages and Literatures.

grammar.quickanddirtytips.com

quickanddirtytips provides a lot of tips to improve English language skills. The site has a podcast version for all its lessons, which will help the learners listen and understand.

yourdictionary.com

yourdictionary.com is an authentic site on English usage. In this particular URL, the site is providing 5 most common errors in English. Correcting these errors will make ones writing perfect.

http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/kids/animals/malefemalechild/

This section of the site would be good for early learners of English, especially children. It is specially designed for kids, so following the link will make learning an entertaining experience.


www.enchantedlearning.com

As the previous site, this also helps the kids to learn some basic ideas in the language.

http://www.eslgold.com/grammar/basic_sentence.html

This link will help the learners to master sentence structure.

www.english-the-easy-way.com

Learning English is always easy as the site promises. It has different sections such as Grammar, Writing Skills, Academic Writing, Punctuation, Speaking English, Proofreading & Editing, Reading, Job Hunting, Writing Resumes, Vocabulary and so on.

www.englishpage.com

englishpage.com is good for understanding almost all topics in English. However, I would suggest this especially to improve tenses. The exercises given are very good to master the basic ideas of tense.

grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar

Referring different topics in different sites is always very monotonous, but if you check grammar.ccc.commnet.edu, then no need of another source at all.

www.world-english.org

If you are looking for activity oriented learning, there is no other best source than this. As they claim, it is "the one-stop resource for the English language and more..."

Teacher- A Facilitator, or a Tuglaq?

Every language teacher will have faced a situation where he/she felt himself/herself as the Great Tuglaq. Muhammd bin Tuglaq was a great ruler in India who made many revolutionary administrative reforms and most of them turned out to be tragic due to poor implementation. He wanted to make his rule more effective and had an eye for future changes, for example, his decision to change the capital to Delhi. However, his reforms did not bring about the desired effects as he was too haste and didn’t think about practical problems. Language teachers who want to make a difference are often face similar problems. As ELT trainers, most of us wanted our students to speak English fluently within a short period of time. This will create a totally reverse situation than we have ever imagined. This is so because language learning requires a longer period of time different from other disciplines. The situation becomes more difficult when the teaching methodology adopted in institutions does not focus on this aspect and give less importance to language learning. In most of the universities in Kerala, now the duration of teaching English is two semesters; in these two semesters, little or no importance is given to developing English language skills.

Teaching language can be more difficult in most situations as the students may not have the interest to learn the language. When language becomes just one subject, and the focus is given in getting more scores than really mastering the basic concepts, learning process will be the last activity in the classrooms.

ESL activities can be a double-edged weapon in such classrooms. The activities can motivate the students to learn the basic concepts well. Besides, the students will get real-time experience in situational-language learning; whereas this can have an adverse effect if the students are not interested in the activities, or did not understand the basic idea behind the activities, or if the instructor conducts the activities without much planning. In other words, the teachers should not be Tuglaqs.

So, what should be the role of the teacher in the classroom? Should he be a dictator as in the olden times (at least in my student years)? Or a friend who will encourage, motivate the student through friendly gestures? Or should he be both? In one method, teacher is a ‘facilitator’ by which it means “An individual who enables groups and organizations to work more effectively; to collaborate and achieve synergy. He or she is a 'content neutral' party who by not taking sides or expressing or advocating a point of view during the meeting, can advocate for fair, open, and inclusive procedures to accomplish the group's work" – (Doyle, Wikipedia). How far this idea of ‘content neutral’ works in an ESL classroom? Here, being ‘neutral’ doesn’t mean being passive. Like any other place, a classroom also consists of different types of audiences, hostile, critical, uninformed and sympathetic. Here, the facilitator needs to change his teaching strategy according to his audience. In other words, the overall picture is important and also understanding each and every individual in the classroom.