3: Naturography, Tennis, Monsoon & Workshop

Academic Year 2013-14:

Post 3: Florescence, Rain-tennis, Teaching & Workshop

Florescence: July 2013

The week (22-27 July 2013) was the week full of showers and drizzles. The Rain-God seems to be happy this year. The flora surrounding the Department of English has blossomed in this 'season of mist and mellow fruitfulness' (Keats' To Autumn). One can but not escape from the memory of Wordsworth's 'Daffodils' -  "Fluttering and dancing in the breeze . . . Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. . . the bliss of solitude . . . And then my heart with pleasure fills, . . . And dances with the daffodils."

Nature has curious ways to teach lesson to humans.

Wordsworth has truly said in 'Tabled Turned': "Let Nature be your teacher . . .spontaneous wisdom breathed by health, truth breathed by cheerfulness . . .It may teach you more of man, of moral evil and of good, than all the sages can . . . Come forth, and bring with you a hearth that watches and receives." How true! How come the vine of flower crept up to the CCTV camera to give us an oxymoron image? How paradoxical is this image - either you call it security or spy camera, it connotes fear & faithlessness - and the lavender flower among green leaves - stands for innocence, beauty & truth! So much of precautions, so much of fear, so much of doubt, so less of trust, so less of reliance! Lavender or green, rocky or leafy, fair or coarse; Nature do not differentiate! And we, the humans, live with walls made up of caste, creed, colour, religion, gender and nationalities; and do not even care to 'mend' the wall!

  

Well, the tiny little grass with six leaves has great message for those who find that their circumstances and situations are worst among all. Amidst rock solid stones, this soft and fine tissue - nature's beloved little child  - has defiantly sprung out. Perhaps, smilingly says: 'you still have better cards then mine.'

If the monsoon brings heaven on the earth with its beauteous splendour, it also brings in hurdles for out-door games. Many of the tennis-players of clay or grass courts will be having their monsoon vacation, we, the players of tar-cement court, do not take break from playing.

Sports is an addiction, though a healthy one. It is not only the physical fitness which tempts me to procrastinate all important work in the morning hours. Rather, it is psychological relief, a cathartic release from the repressed angst and anxiety. Had I not been playing Tennis, I would have been a spoilsport in relationships. Greeks were true lover of sports-culture. They mothered Olympics. I do not know why, but we do not have sports-culture. 

Thanks to NDTV and Ranbir Kapoor for the campaign - Marks for Sports. Yes, there should be equal marks for those who appear in term-end exams and those who disappear from the class to play games. If you agree, like this Facebook page.

Well, coming to the task of teaching, it was quite wonderful week. Semester 1 students keenly participated in the discussion on Plato's objection to poetry and Aristotle's answer to his Guru. Yes, the week began with Guru-Purnima (22 July). The example of Aristotle's disagreement with his Guru and his giving him fitful answers is one of the best things for students to imbibe. We, rather, believe in too much of obeyance, which does not allow us to disagree with our teachers (Guru). Yes, teachers (Guru) should be honoured and respected, if they deserve; but to obey them in all regards, is not digestible idea. Bowing down breeds slave-culture. Standing head and shoulder with Guru, looking straight into his eyes breeds the culture of leaders. Choice is ours; decent looking slave-culture or defiantly posing leaders. Now, wee cannot afford yet another slavedom.
The chief point of discussion was 'Plato's objection to poetry and Aristotle's defence'. It was observed that Plato confused the study of morals/ethics with that of aesthetics. Aristotle removed the confusion and established study of aesthetic on higher pedestal as compared to philosophy and history. The presentation can be viewed here:

Plato's Objection to Poetry and Aristotle's Defence from Dilip Barad

The discussion on Plato's objection to poetry in particular and literature in general, was like dust raising wind. Several of students shared their personal experience on how books helped them fight their personal battles with circumstances. We viewed some thought provoking videos by Chinese Lisa Bu's TED talk on 'How Books can Open Mind' and Jessica Wise's animation on 'How Fiction can change Reality'. The videos are available on YouTube and are embedded here:

Most of the students did not agree with Plato's objection. We do not agree with an Utopian idea of state without poets! Plato confused the study of aesthetics with that of morals & ethics. Aristotle removed that confusion and established literature as the study of aesthetic with specific purpose to please / give aesthetic delight, and not to instruct. Instructions may be given as by product but the ruling principle should be pleasure/delight. Though Aristotle, in his characteristic golden mean approach, seem to give equal importance to delight and moral sense/ moral purpose (instruction). But the question remains to be self-examined: 'Isn't Plato still alive in us?' We love and revere those poets who speak honey to our heart and soothing songs to our souls. But, what if some comes with an axe to break the frozen ice or with hammer to reshape our culturally conditioned minds? Well, the Platonic objection raises like the phoenix from the ashes and cries for the banishment of the breeder of falsehood and the mother of all lies! The writers in exile was reality, is reality and will forever be so. Click these links if you doubt my words:

• The Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, who once fled Nigeria, considers the plight of writers in exilehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/jul/13/poetry.wolesoyinka
• The platform to exiled writers: http://www.exiledwriters.co.uk/
• The stoties of 10 famous literary exiles: http://flavorwire.com/310679/the-stories-of-10-famous-literary-exiles

So, can we say: Plato's truth was truer than Aristotle's? Please post your views in the 'comments' below this post, if you have any say in this matter.

In Semester 3, we concluded discussion on T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land. This class is 'clam and free'. Rarely have questions. When students do not question, it is a kind of uncanny feeling which confuses the teacher. The teacher cannot make out whether s/he is so lucid and clear that an obscure poem like 'The Waste Land' has been chewed and digested, almost effortlessly; or the students have understood nothing that that can raise doubt or question in their minds! And I fear the later. 

The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot from Dilip Barad

I cannot end this post without the mention of the last day of the week - Saturyday 27th July. The C.O. Jani College of Computer Science invited us to organise workshop on language, soft skills, effective presentation skills and basics on CV, Resume & BioData. Nishant Pandya - fromer student and a faculty of Mahuva BBA/BCA College, dealt interestingly with 'English is not a Language but Languages….
The presentation deals with variants of English language. Language refashions her shape according to social and cultural requirements. Individuals differ in the manner in which they speak, although usually not markedly within a small area. The differences among groups of speakers in the same speech community can, however, be considerable. Heenaba Zala, visiting faculty, Dept. of English, MK Bhavnagar University, made beautiful presentation on 'Soft Skills'. Her presentation can be viewed here: 

The ACE of soft skills: Enhancing Employability from Heenaba Zala

Apart from these presentations, there was something to make us proud. Six of our students make wonderful presentations. Yashpalsinh Gohil, Pratipalsinh Chudasama, Devendra Joshi & Kaushal Desai prepared very engrossing presentation with appropriate images and videos on 'How to make effective PowerPoint Presentation?' Their presentation can be viewed here:

Pratiksha Solanki and Drashti Dave made presentation on 'The Definitions and Differences: Resume, C.V., Bio Data & ePortfolio'. Their presentation can be viewed here: 

Resume/ CV/ Bio-data Differences & e-Portfolio.. from solankipratiksha

Teachers & PG students interacting with UG students of Computer Science 

2: Meetings, Teaching and Presentations

Academic Year 2013-14:

Post 2: Blending Teaching Methods:

The week (15-20 July 2013) was the week full of meetings and most of the time was eaten away by monstrous Mr. Admin. If I have to rewrite Dryden's aphorism: 'The corruption of a Poet, is the Generation of Critick'; I would rather put it as - 'The corruption of a Teacher, is the work known as Meetings and Administration.' The body and mind (fortunately, not the soul), were so exhausted that it fell prey to fever, headache and diarrhoea. Amidst, the work which I do not love to do, if there is anything relieving, it is the time when I am either in the classroom or on the tennis court.

Stone walls do not a prison make, Nor iron bars a cage; Minds 

innocent and quiet take That for an hermitage. (Richard Lovelace)

During let-down moments, the vine like this (see photograph) has some message for us. It makes, if not friendship, at least, adjustment with the iron-twines. It sustains and goes on growing, longer, climbing, twining against the odds - but do not think of ending a life. There are different kinds of suicidal tendencies. The worst of them is not self-slaughter; it is to return back from the path taken for a tough journey.

Well, the classroom interactions went on quite well. In semester 1, we continued out discussion of 'Literature, 'Criticism', 'role of a Critic' & 'difference between theory & criticism'. The class has a few quite impressive fast-learners. They can sense questions and hit answers right on the head of the nail. As most of their responses were on the slides, there was but little space to do board work. So, there are no green board images. Instead, have a look at the presentations discussed in the class. The following three presentations were discussed in the class with quite a lot of discussion.

What is Literature? from Dilip Barad

The discussion ended with a conclusion that it is 'language' and the 'use of language' which makes for the literature. 

The confab on Criticism Vs Creativity was aimed at understanding role of a Critic. A few students came with interesting observations. Say for instance, one of them said: 'the relationship between critic and creative writer is analogous to the relationship between 'Bahu and Saas' (it is daughter-in-law and mother-in-law relation deeply rooted in Indian cultural context). Tom and Jerry can be yet another similar relation. The other student came with an observation that: 'critics are very important as they give new vision to the work of art'.
To a question: 'whether we need a critic when we consume literature outside academic periphery?', some students nodded to the voice that the movie reviews are read before deciding on watching a movie. This confab concluded in congruence: the role of critic is as important as that of creative writer, who is also a critic of life.

Criticism Vs Creativity from Dilip Barad

The week ended with final discussion on the difference between criticism and theory.

Difference between Literary Theory and Criticism from Dilip Barad
We ended with concluding remark that: 'Criticism is passing judgement on various aspects of literature; whereas, Theory is not judgement, but understanding of the frames of judgement.

 Semester 3: The Waste Land

The Waste Land: III. The Fire Sermon

The Waste Land: V. What the Thunder Said

The teaching of this poem was pedagogically based on I. A. Richards's 'The Practical Criticism;. Purely, New Critical approach. We listened audio of the poem downloaded form www.librivox.org and dissected it into bits and pieces. Yes, dissection is the most appropriate word. First of all, we torn the poem apart by separating scenes and images. The collage was operated & individual pictures were separated; and then had microscopic view of the scenes as an individual image before seeing it as a part of whole picture. At the end, we connected the seemingly incongruent images - and the beads got settled with the string to make a rosary! Yes, beads (rudraksha) and rosary (prayer mala) give spiritual connotation, and 'The Waste Land' also ends with very strong spiritual connotation: "Shantih, Shantih, Shantih." The peace that passeth understanding.

 

Next week, we will discuss some questions (handouts are already distributed) and probable answers - more of an exam oriented teaching - an unavoidable evil!  

1: The Beginning of New Academic Year, Classroom Discussion & the Boardwork

Academic Year 2013-14:
Post 1: Blending Teaching Methods: 
From Sage on the Stage to Guide by the Side

What is Literature? (Classroom discussion chalked out on green board

It was fairly good beginning (11 July 2013). The new students are quite impressive. In just two days of interaction, I am impressed. They have 'hyper'-actively participated in the classroom discussion. In normal condition, in the first week, the questions bubbled in the classroom do not exist longer. They burst to die in their infancy. Instead, the questions were tenderly nestled and blown wider in size and higher in the air. See, the image of the board-work. The essence of discussion in chalked out on the green board. 

The Waste Land: An Introduction

 The classes for Semester 3 students commenced quite earlier (24 June 2013). We have a small group of students in this class. Not all are always keen to discuss but a few of them lead the discussion to its destination. We discussed historical, social and economical background of the Twentieth Century English Literature. It was rather an oral discussion with a rare use of board work, and I forgot to take photographs of those interactions. Here are a few images of the discussion on T.S. Eliot's poem 'The Waste Land'. 

The Waste Land: Part 2: A Game of Chess

The students were quite active in responding to the questions chalked on the board. Though, the poem is a puzzle which requires a bunch of keys to unlock it. No single master key can unlock the meaning of 'The Waste Land'. After listening the recitation of the poem, it seems that the students were more participative. The number of students's interaction increased on second day. Tomorrow, we are going to continue with Part III: The Fire Sermon and I expect passionate participation from the students.
The photographs are taken on mobile phone. The Interactive White Boards (IWB) can be better option for sharing teacher's board work with students. In absence of such hi-end technology, even a simple phone with camera features can help in capturing the images of board work.
Normally, I do not use board work a lot in the classroom. I would prefer to have blank PowerPoint screen and pen or simple Word Document to type students interaction. This year, I am planning to blend this (s)age old traditional chalk-and-talk method with blog etc web 2.0 tools. Let's see, how long I can sustain this . . .
(The Department of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University - Gujarat, India)

Florescence: July 2013

Florescence: Monsoon showers blessed florae surrounding Department of English - M.K. Bhavnagar University (Gujarat, India) with beautiful hues. July 2013

Kill these Games - Save Sport: ToI Initiative

Interesting initiative - Sports-culture, like literature, is the barometer of civilization or cultured nation. Both re-present, not the mirror image but an x-ray image of the skeleton of the moral fabric of society. We remember Greeks as not only the lovers of art and literature but also of spots (Olympics). The question is: what should be taken care of - a particular game or sports, in general or, more importantly, Moral Fabric of society?

We'd like our readers to give us ideas and suggestions on how we can save sport in the country. Write to us at savesport@timesgroup.in

Book Review: Dalit Literature: A Critical Exploration

Book Review

By Dr. Dilip P.Barad, Dept. of English, Bhavnagar University. (15 July 2008)

Dalit Literature: A Critical Exploration

Edited by Amar Nath Prasad and M.B.Gaijan

Published by Sarup & Sons, New Delhi

ISBN: 81-7652-817-2

Rs. 850 (Pp. 318+16)

                                                                       

Thousand of books are written and edited on marginal literature. Dalit Literature: A Critical Exploration, edited by Amar Nath Prasad and M.B.Gaijan, is not the black sheep of that flock. What is it, that one can say in single sentence that is unique of this edited book? It is the pattern in which the idea of Dalit literature evolves, progresses and emerges that makes this book unique and worth reading. See how it happens: the first page of the first article reads: I reject….I reject….I reject. This is the voice of protest, which is synonymous of all marginal literature. The last article quotes J.V.Dave …nowhere a revengeful Dalit anger anywhere although the author is a Dalit lady. But there is evidently a humanist sense… This change in angst clearly shows how Dalit literature has matured to embrace human justice and aesthetic sense. This design in the selection and order of the articles makes this book unique one.

The editing is quite impressive. The selection of articles / research papers is excellent. None of the edited books one ever read would have such a variety and scope in its theme. Thematically the book is very rich. It has 21 well research papers. The critical exploration of Dalit anxiety, Dalit sensibility, Dalit dilemma and Indian Dalichtomy[1] is appealing in all these articles. Various facets of Dalit literature from Chokamela: the pioneer of Dalit movement to Arunthati Roy’s God and Daxa Damodaran’s  Shosh…. is selected in this anthology.  

The beauty of the book lies in its language. It seems editors have worked on the language of all the articles to make it simple and appropriate to the theme discussed in the book. Words after words, sentence after sentence, paragraph after paragraphs flows as smoothly as water flows in river Ganga. However, this calmness or silence is only the upper current of river Ganga. The under current is as furious and fiery as that of volcano burning inside. It voices the silence of the marginalized and the oppressed as its theme.  The theme emerges as naturally as flowers from buds. This makes reading this book a journey, which we wish, should never end.

Read these excerpts to believe it:

“The Poet (Tagore) has not portrayed outcast as miserable, pitiable or helpless. Their condition, portrayed by him, is no doubt pitiable but it is created by the orthodox Indians… Tagore has highly praised their human virtues in their wretched situation. The poet has his own way to raise the issue, different from Gandhi. He has not used Gandhi’s term ‘Harijan’ for Outcaste. He has boldly exposed the hypocrisy of the orthodox … the poet has consciously and earnestly tried to raise the issue of the insulted community.”(Pg 102)

“Arundhati Roy has heralded a revolutionary attitude against the mal-treatment of the untouchable, the vulnerable and the down-trodden. Though these ‘Mombatties’ have no glass, no protection, no support to face the surge of the fast wind, yet in comparison with ‘Laltain’, they are not rigid and stubborn but ever ready to burn another lamp. The Mombaties of Roy’s world which she calls them the God of Los, The God of Small Things, are bound to suffer much insult something’s with causes and sometimes without any cause. The ‘Laltain’ on the other hand, is well fed and well protected. (Pg.269)

“The novel (Shosh) has other sub-themes. Dalit issues it presents but in a different way. Here Dalits are not degraded. Generally it is believed the Dalit writing is merely a cry of Dalits protest. This novel is quite different from that opinion. It is the genuine appeal to human beings to remove al social inequality based on sex or caste. Here Dalits do not protest against non-Dalits’ cruelty but non-Dalit protagonist protests against non-Dalit’ cruelty on Dalit. (Pg.312)

The book opens with Darshna Trivedi’s article. It sets the tone of the entire critical exploration on Dalit literary theory. She quotes form Rig Veda to recent Marathi poems to prove her argument, which she does quite successfully.  She has critically examined the origin of the term Dalit, compared dalit literature with mainstream literature and concluded her article with future of Dalit literature.  Her article opens with the angst-ridden voice (quoted form a Marathi Dalit Poem):

“I reject your culture. I reject your parmeshwar centred tradition. I reject your religion based literature.”

Prof. B.S.Nimavat’s article takes us back to 13^th and 14^th century. In his article, he explored into the realm of Chokhamela, the Mahar Maharashtrian saint in the Bhakti tradition. He deals with rarest of the rare incident, Mahar guru and Brahmin disciple. The beginning of his article is quite effective. He quotes Prof. Gangadhar Pantawane:  “To me, Dalit is not a Caste. He is a man exploited by the social and economic traditions of the country…. Dalit is a symbol of change and revolution.” Dr. S.K.Paul has very effectively explored Dalitism: its growth and evaluation. He is of the opinion that lack of real sincerity and commitment at the political level and the silence of the Dalits in the key political and bureaucratic positions is the root of all the evils against dalits in society.  He is of the view that Dalitness is essentially a means towards achieving a sense of cultural identity and for that purpose Dalit literature should not only highlight the disadvantages and difficulties together with atrocities and inhuman treatment given to Dalits but its main object should be to bring social awakening among the downtrodden.

This anthology has given good space to regional literature, especially Gujarati Dalit literature. Dr. Pathik Paramar has critically analyzed the Gujarati Dalit poetry in a very exhaustive and comprehensive way. Read the following quotation (of the poem) from his article:

“Who is wounded

That is I

To whom since the centuries

You refuse to know…

You are talking about the wound,

I am living with the wound.”

“I tell them:

This head, is Sambooka’s,

These hands are Eklavaya’s

This heart, Kabir’s.

I am Jabali Satyakama.

But still I am a man.”

He, thus, observes the suppressed voice of the Dalits, their self-experience of injustice and atrocities and their furious expression on the Brahminical traditions. Dr. Rupali Burke’s observations are path breaking. We have read articles and research papers passing running comment on how mainstream literature is different form marginalized literature. But none has given thought provoking and well-evaluated point to point discussion as she has given in her article Reversing Centrality and Marginality: Gujarati Lalit Literature Vs. Gujarati Dalit Literature. Harish Mangalam’s article is gist of his experience as a poet. Being (himself) a poet, none can evaluate origin and development of Gujarati Dalit poetry as he can. He has observed that Gujarati Dalit poetry initiated on a note of revolt, anger and impulse. Slowly and steadily, it flowed smoothly in the sea of mainstream literature. Gujarati Dalit poetry today, has tremendous freshness of expression.

All other articles are also well researched and throw new insight in the field of Dalit literature. Space does not permit to discuss all of them separately in this review. They all are worth reading for study and research.     

All these beads are connected into a beautiful Shabri-mala by the thread, which is made of four articles written by both the editors.  These articles share their views on dalit in various literary genres - from Tagore’s poetry to Arundhati Roy’s novels to Gujarati Dalit Novel. Dr. Amar Nath Prasad critically examined the fact in three novels of Roy that God never makes any difference between a touchable and an untouchable.  He tried to ascertain that no society or nation can ever progress without the co-operation of the Dalit and the downtrodden.

Dr.M.B.Gaijan’s two articles exhibit Dalit consciousness in Tagore’s poetry and Roy’s God of Small Things. Dalit-empathy and dalit-angst is displayed in Tagore’s poetry and Roy’s novel respectively. The book ends with his third article on Shosh – a Gujarati Dalit Novel.  Symbolically speaking, it is not the end, but the beginning of new Dalit literature. It is one of the six articles on Gujarati Dalit literature in this book. Dalit literature has travelled a long day’s journey into nights. The revengeful Dalit voice becomes the voice of humanist in Shosh. This last article opens a new chapter in the Dalit literature. It seems to say that the literature, which began as a protest literature, has matured to encompass humanity and aesthetic justice.

The book is edited so meticulously that it has almost everything that one need to read when it comes to Dalit literature. A must read book for student and researchers of Dalit literature.

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[1] The word is derived from Victorian Dichotomy.