Power of Morning Rituals

Morning Rituals

If you've ever woken up feeling groggy, sluggish, and unmotivated, you're not alone. Many people struggle with starting their day on the right foot, and it can have a significant impact on their productivity, happiness, and overall well-being. But what if there was a way to kickstart your day with a burst of energy and positivity? That's where morning rituals come in.

Morning rituals are a set of actions that you perform every morning to set the tone for your day. They can be anything from exercise, meditation, journaling, or even reading a few pages of a book. The key is to make them consistent and meaningful to you.

The power of morning rituals lies in their ability to create a sense of control and structure in your day. By starting your day with purposeful actions, you take charge of your day's narrative, rather than letting outside influences dictate how you feel and act.

For me, my morning ritual starts on the tennis court. There's something about hitting a ball with all your might that helps release negative emotions and stress. It's a form of therapy that clears my mind and sets me up for a productive day ahead.

But you don't have to be a tennis player to benefit from morning rituals. The key is to find something that resonates with you and brings you joy. It could be a quick yoga routine, a brisk walk outside, or even a few minutes of deep breathing. The goal is to find an activity that helps you connect with yourself and set a positive tone for the day.

One of the biggest benefits of morning rituals is their ability to boost your overall well-being. Studies have shown that consistent morning routines can reduce stress levels, improve sleep quality, and increase feelings of happiness and productivity throughout the day.

So, how do you start a morning ritual? It's all about finding what works for you and committing to it. Start small and build up over time. Don't try to do too much at once, or you risk burning out and giving up on the routine altogether. Set realistic goals and make it a priority to stick to them, even when it's challenging.

The morning rituals are a powerful tool for boosting your overall well-being and setting the tone for a positive and productive day. Whether you're a tennis player, a yogi, or a bookworm, there's a morning ritual out there for everyone. So why not give it a try and see the difference it can make in your life

This albums (embedded from Facebook) displays photos related to physical fitness, sports and recreation activities which are carried out with the fervour of religious ritual.

Morning Rituals: This albums displays photos related to physical fitness, sports and recreation activities which are...
Posted by Dilip Barad on Monday, 20 April 2015

Thanks to Harbhadrasinh I. Sarvaiya for yet another very well shoot video.

Posted by Dilip Barad on Friday, 6 November 2015

Helicopter topspin ☺ #MSDHONI #Tennis #Cricket . Thanks to Pesi Noshir Sinor for the video.

Posted by Dilip Barad on Tuesday, 6 January 2015

Economics Simplified

The economies and the corporations of the world explained in the utmost simplifies way with the common example of two cows.

Forthrightedness of Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw

'Sam Bahadur' Manekshaw was well - known for his bravery for under his command, Indian Forces conducted victorious campaigns against Pakistan in the Indo - Pakistan War of 1971 that led to the liberation of Bangladesh in Dec 1971.
He is also known for his forthright approach. Here are some of the examples of his forthrightedness in dealing with the then Prime Minister of India, Mrs. Indira Gandhi.

Source: http://www.scrolldroll.com/sam-manekshaw-showed-he-was-the-most-badass-army-general-ever/

From CV to DP

From Curriculum Vitae to Digital Portfolio

• Though the words like C.V. (Curriculum Vitae), Resume and Bio-Data are used interchangeably as synonymous, yet there is a difference among them.
• Resume is the shortest in form among the three. Then comes C.V. followed by Bio-Date.
• One should be careful about what recruiter is asking for. One should not keep any one form ready and print the same whenever job opportunity knocks the door.
• If CV is asked, do not give Resume or Bio-Data.
• Resume remains much in demand as people do not have time to read so many pages. One should keep a page or two of Resume ready and handy to be produced as and when required.
• If you are curious to know the difference among them, the below given presentation will help you.
• Well, the presentation is prepared a few years back so it talks about Digital Portfolio but do not discuss examples.
• What is DP? DP is Digital Portfolio - is also know as an electronic portfolio (also known as an eportfolio, e-portfolio, digital portfolio, or online portfolio)is a collection of electronic evidence assembled and managed by a user, usually on the Web. Such electronic evidence may include inputted text, electronic files, images, multimedia, blog entries, and hyperlinks. E-portfolios are both demonstrations of the user's abilities and platforms for self-expression, and, if they are online, they can be maintained dynamically over time.
  An e-portfolio can be seen as a type of learning record that provides actual evidence of achievement. Learning records are closely related to the Learning Plan, an emerging tool that is being used to manage learning by individuals, teams, communities of interest, and organizations. To the extent that a Personal Learning Environment captures and displays a learning record, it also might be understood to be an electronic portfolio. (Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_portfolio)
• Now-a-days, students should have Digital Portfolio of their academic, co-curricular and extra-extracurricular activities.
• If you want to have a look at Digital Portfolios of students, please click here and follow the links.

•  Click here to visit the blog post > click on the Batch 2013-15 or any other. You will see the names of the students. Click on the names to visit their Digital Portfolio.

Resume, C.V., BioData and ePortfolio from Dilip Barad

Digital Portfolio Workshop from Dilip Barad

My Presentations

1. The Presentation on 'The Renaissance Literature" : Title:
To Evaluate this presentation, click here

Samuel Coleridge- Biographia Literaria Ch 14 from Dilip Barad

2. Title of Presentation:

"To evaluate my Presentation, click here"

Universal Human Laws in The Waste Land (T.S. Eliot) from Dilip Barad

Rubric for Evaluation of Written Assignment

Online Rubric for Written Assignment

Such evaluation in abstraction (at the mercy of the will of teacher)  does not help students. It must be concretized in definable terms 

Time and again, friends and fellow teachers have inquired about the way to evaluate Written Assignment. Whether it is ongoing Assessment  or final Evaluation, both require criteria, measures and it should be evidence driven. Moreover, the abstract marking or grading of student's performance should be defined in concrete terms. Some definable criteria should be set which can be used as measures and which can be supported with evidence. Here is an example which can be of some help to all those who are concerned with assessment and evaluation of Written Assignment.

We have used Google Forms for online rubric. If you are interested and want to customize it  as per your requirements, I can make you owner of the Google Form and you can use it as per your convenience. You can contact me by putting your message on the contact form given on right hand side panel of this blog. Please give your Gmail email id to become owner of the Google Form.

This 'Online Rubric is used at Dept. of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University, Bhavnagar (Gujarat - India) for:

• Peer Evaluation (Student's Written Assignment evaluated by student)
• Teacher Evaluation (Teacher's evaluation of student's Written Assignment)
• Self-evaluation (Student evaluates her/himself)

(If the form do not open within a few seconds, click here to open online evaluation form)

If you are preparing rubric in Google Classroom, click here for help

This online rubric to evaluate Written Assignment is prepared with the help of evaluation criteria used by An American University of Rome (http://www.aur.edu/)

Rubric for Evaluation of Oral Presentation

Online Rubric for Oral Presentation

Students making Oral Presentations

Time and again, friends and fellow teachers have inquired about the way to evaluate Oral presentations. Whether it is ongoing Assessment  or final Evaluation, both require criteria, measures and it should be evidence driven. Moreover, the abstract marking or grading of student's performance should be defined in concrete terms. Some definable criteria should be set which can be used as measures and which can be supported with evidence. Here is an example which can be of some help to all those who are concerned with assessment and evaluation of Oral Presentations.

We have used Google Forms for online rubric. If you are interested and want to customize it  as per your requirements, i can make you owner of the Google Form and you can use it as per your convenience. You can contact me by putting your message on the contact form given on right hand side panel of this blog. Please give your Gmail email id to become owner of the Google Form.

This 'Online Rubric is used at Dept. of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University, Bhavnagar (Gujarat - India) for:

• Peer Evaluation (Student's oral presentation evaluated by student)
• Teacher Evaluation (Teacher's evaluation of student's oral presentation)
• Self-evaluation (Student evaluates her/himself)

For peer evaluation of sem 1 students, click here

For peer evaluation of sem 2 students, click here

For peer evaluation of sem 3 students, click here

For peer evaluation of sem 4 students, click here

This rubric for the evaluation of Oral Presentation is based on the one prepared by National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)

We have taken help of ReadWriteThink, NCTE from this website to prepare this rubric. © ILA/NCTE
http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/printouts/oral-presentation-rubric-30700.html

Life Skills from a Struggler - Shahrukh Khan

Bollywood superstar just got his second honorary doctorate from a University. He wrote on Facebook: “I am a Doctor all over again…yay!! Her Royal Highness & Prof. Jeffery & Smith & all your colleagues, thank you for the Degree of Doctor Honoris Causa.”

He also delivered a lecture to students at the University of Edinburgh, UK. The university’s official website: “The university is to host a visit by Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan on Thursday, 15 October. The actor, one of Bollywood’s most popular stars, will give a public lecture at the University’s New College.” SRK also has an honorary doctorate from the University of Bedfordshire.

(http://www.dnaindia.com/entertainment/report-shah-rukh-khan-gets-his-second-honorary-doctorate-2135376)

Source of images: http://www.indiatimes.com/entertainment/celebs/11-inspiring-things-srk-said-in-his-edinburgh-speech-that-will-touch-everyone-246305.html

http://www.theindianpage.in/10-inspiring-things-said-by-shah-rukh-khan-in-edinburgh-university/

Postcards in the Digital Age

It's the 'Experience' to write a Postcard 

Prof. Mahendrasinh Parmar's experimental short story on disappearing Postcard inspired me to rethink about the Postcard. The story is titled as 'Postcard jetli (j) Varta?' It is in Gujarati language. If i have translate the title, it would be something like: 'Story, just as Postcard?'. I do not know if it captures the nuance of the short story.

Cover Page of the Short Story

We used to write letters and postcards before emails and SMS / Text messages / Social Media platforms / WhatsApp etc changed our habits of communication. Now-a-days, it is not an easy task to communicate with people through postcards. I would have not thought of writing this blog or writing postcard or even thinking so deeply(or shallow?) after reading the short story, but an amazing thing happened the next day of reading and having interaction with Prof. Parmar about the postcard.

And that is . . . i received a Postcard from a former student Ketan Bhikadiya. Paulo Coelho has rightly said in The Alchemist: “And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” 

I thought let me reply him through postcard.

I asked peon to get me some postcards. He was surprised. I showed him the cover-page of the short story and told him to get this kind of cards in bright yellowish colour from post office. Yes, he wont be able to get postcards from any other place. Is it available anywhere else? I tried to Google it but was not able to get the destination. See, even Google do not know from where to get the postcards! ;) 

Yes, some designer postcards are available but we have to fix 50 paise post-stamp on it before posting it. By posting, i mean dropping it in the red box.

And

I wrote a postcard!

on 16th October, 2015. After almost 15 years, i wrote a postcard.

I have some fascination for ink-pens / fountain pens. So, just to feel the exaltation of writing with fountain pen, i do write dairies, official letters (where people expect typed ones), just yesterday, i wrote two Ph.D. theses evaluation reports with fountain pen. . .  and so & so.  This fascination was one spur to reply a postcard with postcard but it is certain that - had i not come across the short story, i would have not written postcard. I may have written a letter, but surely, not a postcard.

Today, there are twenty postcards waiting on my table to be written to someone. I am eagerly waiting for postcards so that i can reply with postcard. If you come across this blog and want to give me a chance to write a postcard, please drop a postcard at this address: 

Prof. Dilip Barad, 

Head, Dept. of English, 

M.K. Bhavnagar University, 

Bhavnagar - 364002. Gujarat. India

I would be glad to reply you. Please, do not forget to write your full address with clear handwriting. You know, we have forgot the habit of writing who we are and where do we live in our communications. People, these days, just start posting messages on WhatsApp or SMS without giving proper self-introduction. Most of the emails are without proper signature-note. We have our precious time is asking who the person on the other side is. So, a reminder - please write your full address, if you wish to get a reply and . . . . more importantly, give me an opportunity to write a postcard! I beseech you! Do me a favour by writing postcard.

Some concerns about writing Postcard in Digital Age

This idea of writing postcard in Digital age is a very regressive idea. Isn't it? What do you say? Humans are designed to think progressively. Going back or thinking regressively is not natural to human mind. There may be literary expressions on the dying-ness of things and human habits, but it is not possible for the humans to go back, to think regressively. It seems that it is this spirit of progressive thinking that keeps human alive on the Earth, the only Home of Humans in this uncaring, indifferent Universe. We may cite Paulo Coelho to make a point about coincidence and happenstances in life.

We may cite examples of Il Postino: The Postman (See footnote), a fictional story in which the real life Chilean poet Pablo Neruda forms a relationship with a simple postman. But in real, pragmatic life, the idea of postcard seems to be weird.

Say for instance,

Instead of typing 'hi-hello' or 'a smiley' or acknowledge receipt in form of 'Like' on mobile screen or in Social Media message box, if i write a postcard for the similar purpose, how many humans will be troubled?

The postcard which i mentioned earlier in the blog was delivered to me by a thin and lean, poorly looking postman while i was taking my class. Not only that the class / students and the teacher was 'disturbed' (we all were surprised to see a postcard and a breeze of smile spread over the class in reminiscence of the 'talk' delivered by Prof. Parmar on his story) but also the man, the postcard troubled a lot. He was all sweat, perspiring and heavily breathing as he cycled up hill to the Department. The postmen delivers their posts between 11 and 4. The countries like India are quite hot to work out in scorching sun and that too on cycle.

This is about the postman who delivered the post. There are many people involved in the process of postal communication. Like, i said earlier, i asked my peon to get me some postcards - the peon has to take pains in getting postcard and then dropping it in the Red Box. The post will be collected by somebody from the box. All such letters will be scrutinized, separated, bundled as per the destination, carried in the baggages on the shoulders of some Coolies, delivered to the destination station, from there again the entire process in reverse. So many humans hours and hard work goes into post card communication. And for what? Just for the sake of my insignificant   'hi-hello'? Isn't this entire postal system which runs on the peddles of feeble human legs, sweating out their blood, dreadfully inhuman? If a small digital device can convey the message, why should humans be engaged in such menial tasks? If cleaning of gutters, sweeping roads and similar menial tasks are categorised as inhuman and machines are invented to eliminate such work from human work list, why should we not think similarly about the work done by Postman?

Well, if one argues on the grounds of employment, like people are getting jobs, why do you want to sacrifice a few more jobs to machine? I think, that people will be requires in the offices to process the communication channels on digital platform. These postmen who are doing menial, inhuman tasks would be engaged in better working condition and will work with human dignity.

Apart from this, the time it consumes in communication can not be equated with any other loss. The speed of communication, timely communication and appropriate form of communication are very important for human happiness. It saves human lives. It gives leisure to enjoy the life. The time wasted in waiting is better utilized to enjoy the life. I do not want to say that with faster communication we can work better and we can produce better and our economy will grow at faster rate and the richness of an individual and the GDP of the country and . . . . No! A big No! It is not for economical considerations. Yes, it is getting advantage of faster communication channels. But we not born to work. We are not born to produce material things. We are not born form money. we are born to enjoy the life. And the time saved in communication and shared in communication, will give us better occasions to enjoy the life.

Even with this considerations, i would be happy to receive a postcard from you. . . and would be delighted to hand-write the reply with a fountain pen. Give me an occasion to write with fountain pen. Give me a chance to write a postcard. Waiting happily for your postcard . . . 

Waiting to write reply postcard . . .

The film is worth watching . . . Il Postino: The Postman (Italian: Il postino) is a 1994 Italian film directed by Michael Radford. The film was originally released in the US as The Postman, a straight translation of the Italian title. The film tells a fictional story in which the real life Chilean poet Pablo Neruda forms a relationship with a simple postman who learns to love poetry. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Il_Postino:_The_Postman)