Writing Unblocked

Let America be America again - Langston Hughes

2012-01-30T15:16:00.000+05:30

Let America be America again.

Let it be the dream it used to be.

Let it be the pioneer on the plain

Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--

Let it be that great strong land of love

Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme

That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty

Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,

But opportunity is real, and life is free,

Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me,

Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?

And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,

I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.

I am the red man driven from the land,

I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--

And finding only the same old stupid plan

Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,

Tangled in that ancient endless chain

Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!

Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!

Of work the men! Of take the pay!

Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.

I am the worker sold to the machine.

I am the Negro, servant to you all.

I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--

Hungry yet today despite the dream.

Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers!

I am the man who never got ahead,

The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream

In the Old World while still a serf of kings,

Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,

That even yet its mighty daring sings

In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned

That's made America the land it has become.

O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas

In search of what I meant to be my home--

For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,

And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,

And torn from Black Africa's strand I came

To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?

Who said the free? Not me?

Surely not me? The millionson relief today?

The millions shot down when we strike?

The millions who have nothing for our pay?

For all the dreams we've dreamed

And all the songs we've sung

And all the hopes we've held

And all the flags we've hung,

The millions who have nothing for our pay--

Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let America be America again--

The land that never has been yet--

And yet must be--the land where every man is free.

The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME--

Who made America?

Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,

Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,

Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--

The steel of freedom does not stain.

From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,

We must take back our land again,

America!

O, yes,

I say it plain,

America never was America to me,

And yet I swear this oath--

America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,

The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,

We, the people, must redeem

The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.

The mountains and the endless plain--

All, all the stretch of these great green states--

And make America again!

For my People - Margaret Walker

2012-01-30T15:14:00.000+05:30

For My People

BY MARGARET WALKER

For my people everywhere singing their slave songs

repeatedly: their dirges and their ditties and their blues

and jubilees, praying their prayers nightly to an

unknown god, bending their knees humbly to an

unseen power;

For my people lending their strength to the years, to the

gone years and the now years and the maybe years,

washing ironing cooking scrubbing sewing mending

hoeing plowing digging planting pruning patching

dragging along never gaining never reaping never

knowing and never understanding;

For my playmates in the clay and dust and sand of Alabama

backyards playing baptizing and preaching and doctor

and jail and soldier and school and mama and cooking

and playhouse and concert and store and hair and

Miss Choomby and company;

For the cramped bewildered years we went to school to learn

to know the reasons why and the answers to and the

people who and the places where and the days when, in

memory of the bitter hours when we discovered we

were black and poor and small and different and nobody

cared and nobody wondered and nobody understood;

For the boys and girls who grew in spite of these things to

be man and woman, to laugh and dance and sing and

play and drink their wine and religion and success, to

marry their playmates and bear children and then die

of consumption and anemia and lynching;

For my people thronging 47th Street in Chicago and Lenox

Avenue in New York and Rampart Street in New

Orleans, lost disinherited dispossessed and happy

people filling the cabarets and taverns and other

people’s pockets and needing bread and shoes and milk and

land and money and something—something all our own;

For my people walking blindly spreading joy, losing time

being lazy, sleeping when hungry, shouting when

burdened, drinking when hopeless, tied, and shackled

and tangled among ourselves by the unseen creatures

who tower over us omnisciently and laugh;

For my people blundering and groping and floundering in

the dark of churches and schools and clubs

and societies, associations and councils and committees and

conventions, distressed and disturbed and deceived and

devoured by money-hungry glory-craving leeches,

preyed on by facile force of state and fad and novelty, by

false prophet and holy believer;

For my people standing staring trying to fashion a better way

from confusion, from hypocrisy and misunderstanding,

trying to fashion a world that will hold all the people,

all the faces, all the adams and eves and their countless generations;

Let a new earth rise. Let another world be born. Let a

bloody peace be written in the sky. Let a second

generation full of courage issue forth; let a people

loving freedom come to growth. Let a beauty full of

healing and a strength of final clenching be the pulsing

in our spirits and our blood. Let the martial songs

be written, let the dirges disappear. Let a race of men now

rise and take control.

Malcolm Gladwell's What the Dog Saw and What I saw in it...

2012-01-21T09:34:00.001+05:30

These days I practice what can be termed as parallel reading. I read three to four books at the same time. Since I am able to create a Now Reading section in iBooks, I am able to clearly divide my time for each book. I read according to the time, mood, and space. Right now I am occupied with the Swedish mystery writer Henning Mankell's thriller series featuring Kurt Wallander, the detective. Today I finished reading Gladwell's - What the Dog Saw and other adventures. I am waiting for the right chance and time to voraciously feed on the contents of his next book - Outliers. Malcolm Gladwell is known for his explorations into the human mind, for his 'thinking out of the box' ideas. I remember my 'neigbour' in MCC talking excitedly about Gladwell's book titled - 'Tipping Point' which if I remember correctly is all about the changing trends in our world and how quickly some trends 'tips' to become popular and some get washed away in the passage of time. You can read more about the book by following this link - http://www.gladwell.com/tippingpoint/.

'What the Dog saw and other adventures' is a book about curiosity. It stresses the need to nurture inquisitiveness. The title reminded me of the essay by A.G.Gardiner titled - 'All about a Dog'. The essay is about a woman who enters the bus with her dog and the commotion and the altercation that followed it. I have taught this essay and I particularly remember asking students to think the whole incident from the point of view of the dog. That was a staple question which was based on the essay, I was soon tired of the question but since my students changed every semester, they always found it refreshing and challenging.

I started reading this book in the printed format. Later I continued with the ePub version in my iPad. Towards the final chapter or adventure I combined the audiobook version and the ePub. It was nice to listen to the author reading the words he has composed. He has this soothing, meditative kind of voice which takes care of each and every word as it came out of his mouth. This is second book that I finished in a span of 30 days, thanks to my acute 'bathroom reading habits'. The first one was the collection of best author interviews from NDTV's program - Just Books. (My next blog will be based on that. Blogging helps me to cement my reflections on the book and fast-read the book one more time)

The book may not be about dogs. But, there are two essays on dogs. One is about Cesar Millan, the dog whisperer who had the god given gift to train or groom even the wildest dog. More info here - http://www.cesarsway.com/. The

essay is an act of profiling where the author wants to know how Cesar Millan did his 'dog whispering' acts. More than this, he wanted to know what went inside dog's head when it was being trained. The second essay featuring dogs is the final one which is titled as 'Troublemakers' which is about how the behaviour of a dog is influenced by the 'wrong background, the wrong history in the hands of the wrong owner'. The essay is about the wrong canine-human interactions.

The book opens with a quote,

"To a worm in horseradish, the world is horseradish"

This is followed by the preface which discusses the philosophy behind the composition of the book. As mentioned earlier the driving force behind these essays is curiosity, 'the trick of finding ideas is to convince yourself that everyone and everything has story to tell'. People who are occupying the seats of power can never acquire knowledge, because they are always self-conscious about what they say and they have to protect their position and privilege. The author says, 'self conscious is the enemy of interestingness'. The book is based on real life incidents and reports that were published in The New Yorker. When the author wrote about the art of failure ( panicking and choking) and the accident that happened to John F Kennedy Jr., he wanted to experience the act of falling from sky and he flew with this friend to immerse himself authentic experience. He talks about another instance where the original and real experience guided his writing - the connection between satellite images and mammography images in the essay titled - The Picture Problem. Talking about this pursuit for originality he says " I spent an afternoon with a radiologist looking at mammograms and halfway through - completely unprompted - he mentioned that he imagined that the problems people like him had in reading breast X-rays were not like the problems people in the CIA had in reading satellite photos.

There are five things that I found appealing and interesting in this book:

1) Malcolm Gladwell is somebody who enjoys writing and he talks about this hobby/job in the preface: Writing was the thing I ended up doing by default, for the simple reason that it took me forever to realize that it took me forever to realize that writing could be job. Jobs were things that were serious and daunting. Writing was fun. He also talks about Late bloomers, 'people who don't realize they're good at something until they're fifty'. He uses the life of Ben Fountain as the example for this late blooming creativity. He was a lawyer and he took a decision to quit his job and dedicate his life to writing. He was apprehensive and he describes the feeling 'I felt like I'd stepped off a cliff and I didn't know if the parachute was going to happen'. I personally felt inspired by his PLAN - 'He sat down at his kitchen table at 7:30 a.m. He made a plan. Everyday, he would write until lunchtime. Then he would write until lunchtime. Then he would lie down on the floor for twenty minutes to rest his mind. Then he would return to work for a few more hours'. This essay also discusses the importance of authentic feelings that should brought in to one's writing. The research element also is of pivotal importance.

2) The essay titled - The Talent Myth - Are smart people overrated? examines the myth of talent and checks it against the organisational settings in a company. He quotes the case study of McKinsey &amp Company,and their War for Talent. The two catch words used here are - differentiation and affirmation. There is the need for the employers to sit down, once or twice a year and hold a "candid, probing, no-holds barred debate about each individual sorting employees into A, B, C groups. The A's should be awarded, the B's need to be encouraged and affirmed. The C's need to shape up or be shipped out. The Internal Performance Review Committee should be set up to monitor these acts. The biggest drawback of schooling is that it cultivates 'the habit of doing things all by ourselves'. Once you get out in the real world, everything you do involves working with other people. What is required is the tacit knowledge which involves things like knowing how to manage yourself and others and how to navigate complicated social situations.

The essay also talks about three types of flawed managers - One is the High Likability Floater, the next one is the Homme de Ressentiment, and the third is the Narcissist. The first type does not take any difficult decisions or make enemies. The second type seethes below the surface and plots against his enemies. The third type tends to self nominate, they are self-confident and they have the strong need for recognition. The talent myth assumes that people make organisations smart. More often than not, its the other way around. The essay also takes a dig at the concept of thinking out of the box - 'They were there looking for people who had the talent to think outside the box. It never occurred to them that, if everyone had to think outside the box, maybe it was the box that needed fixing'.

The book in many ways need a second reading, maybe not all the chapters but at least a few chapters which are indeed the purple patches of the book.

Addicted to Apple

2012-01-14T12:00:00.000+05:30

This is insane!!!

You are trying to be a technocrat

You are addicted to Apple

These are some of the reactions that I received for buying/owning the almost all the products from Apple Inc.

I couldn't really blame them because I have realized that everybody has their perspectives in this world. For some it may be constructing a house of their own, some may find happiness in travelling, and some may attain nirvana in doing nothing. The act of buying the complete range of Apple products was a dream come true situation for me. I now realize that some dreams are powered by money. I still mournfully think about the missed opportunity to do higher studies abroad due to the financial constraints. This time Gods were not crazy, they just acted as the epitomes of benevolence and love. Today I own my dreams and those dreams are living with me. I am able to expand my personal horizon to a better level. I feel confident and sometimes I become a slave to the negative feeling of pride that comes when you own something precious and priceless. At times I also visualize about the future when there will be no Apple by my side. Those days I will take solace in the fact that once I owned the complete range of Apple products.

Let me take a stroll down the lanes of the bygone days. During my days at Loyola, I did some part time work as a proof reader. The plan was to edit some books for two months. I don't exactly remember the name of the firm but what I remember is the fact the i saw for the first time in my life a Macintosh. It was like a blue pearl and the graphic designers were working on the final output. I even got a chance to proof read the contents of the text on the blue pearl. That was my first encounter with Steve Jobs and his creations. Then I remember that one day my Pianist friend brought his Ipod and it was there with me for a few hours. I stealthy tried copying some songs into my PC. I managed to copy some since the Ipod files were all in a encrypted format ( which now I recognize as AAC - Advanced audio coding) . Then Libya happened, there was a financial surge and I decided that I should buy a Mp3 player to quench my thirst for music. My option was not an Ipod, it was a Zen Player from Creative. I took it home and found that the Player was useless. I took it back and the Libyan shop owner who was not that technically sound offered me the Ipod in exchange of the Zen player. That's how I owned my first Apple product. It became my music mate and I had the pleasure of listening to songs as my eyes scanned the Libyan landscape while travelling, visiting the Roman ruins, and while walking on the beach.

The return to the homeland and joining SSIMS was a turning point in my affairs with Apple. I found myself in the world of wireless internet and my attention was on the world of podcasts. The use of podcasts for language learning was a new found thing and I was engaged in the act of downloading hundreds of audio and video podcasts. In addition to this podcasting experience I got a chance to fiddle with FCP ( Final Cut Pro) in Mac which was installed in the Multimedia lab. I still remember how SSIMS director used to brag about the cost of the each Mac and there were no other media center in Bangalore with the same facilities. He was right that time but now things have changed with more and more media institutes cropping up around the cityscape equipped with Mac and Ipads. As the language lab in charge I remember how I used to show my students the Apple WWDC - Worldwide Developers Conference 2005 video in which Steve Jobs unveiled the thinnest laptop in the world known as Mac book Air. I can still hear the gasps of my students when they saw the Mac book fitting into an office envelope.

The journey continued with BCT recruiting me to teach English to the Omani horde. I soon found myself in a different dimension both in teaching and in personal life. I got married and I soon discovered that a human playmate is much more animate than a mechanical one. On the other side I felt that am wasting my time with these students ( which was not true, a language teacher should always see the big picture and the range of students from beginner level to advanced level. I have learned a lot after interacting with the boys/girls here). I was conscious of the time and the teaching black hole that I was in. I felt the need to compensate with something and that is when I realized that I should spend more time in writing and journaling. I was particularly attracted to one app in the I tunes store. It was called Momento. I used to check out the features and dreamt about writing about daily events using Momento. Meanwhile I was caught in a bad choice-making act and purchased Sony Ericsson Xperia in 2009 and it proved to be a disaster. The yearning continued for the Apple phone. In the month of June, 2010, Steve Jobs released the fourth generation of Iphone named as Iphone 4. In the month of September 2010, I purchased my Iphone 4. There was no dilly dallying this time and everything was perfect and the first app which I downloaded from the app store was Momento. Iphone became a kind of status symbol. People started recognizing me for the phone and kids and adults were eager to see the phone and use the pinch and zoom option.

A few months later, Apple released its first tablet and I didn't think twice about buying the same. This time I was enchanted by the iBooks. I also enjoyed the painting and drawing apps like - Brushes, Art Rage and Drawing. I found that the Ipad is the perfect tool for writing and also for reading. I purchased Ipod touch as a gift for my partner and soon she started using it as a gaming and reference tool. There were times when both of us were engaged in games and we were lost in the virtual world for a long time. The last and final purchase I made from Apple is the Mac book Pro which serves as the mothership for the all the apple products. The Mac is a technological marvel after I upgraded it to Mac OS Lion. The multi-gesture track pad is doing wonders. The only product that I would like to own from Apple is the adapter for the projector.

Apple products helps me to increase my productivity. I always carry my precious documents (Dropbox) with me. I am able to take care of my writing to an extent. I am using Momento to capture the best and worst moments in my life. The mind mapping apps helps me to plan out my lessons and project works. The things-to-do apps gives me the necessary focus when it comes to

accomplishing my daily tasks and plans. Some of the tools inspire me write better whereas some help me in teaching. I am clarify my language uncertainties using the dictionary and language apps installed. Waiting for someone or something is a act of joy, waiting is now a time to delve into the numerous word games and puzzles that is installed in the devices. The best part of owning devices from the same manufacturer is syncing becomes an easy task. There is magic in the act of syncing when you see documents and images are there in the place where you want them to be.

Book Review - Under the Dome by Stephen King

2011-11-07T00:37:00.000+05:30

The best time to write a book review blog is hours after finishing reading the book. I started reading Under the Dome by Stephen King a few weeks back and the Eid holidays gave the perfect time to finish it off in style. The book reaffirms my adulation of an author whose books are generally classified as ‘unputdownable’. I remember the days spend at Kozhikode reading his books which I had borrowed from the Central Library. I was the 64th member in the library and I finished all the books in the Stephen King collection that was kept in the library. This summer vacation saw me and my partner glued to the story of The Green Mile another classic film made from the story of Stephen King. The story is set in the penitentiary like the other classic The Shawshank’s Redemption. The Green Mile re-established the fact that it was a better story told From the point of view of a wrongly implicated man. In the Under the Dome Stephen King tells the story of a dome that is over a small town and how the people live and die inside the dome. The dome is symbolic and the story is similar to William Golding's - The Lord of the flies and King's own novel turned movie- The Mist. In William Golding's world the children are left to the care of mother nature, here the adults are on their own. The dome creates 'sides' in the otherwise peaceful town. Skeletons and dead bodies start falling from the cupboards and attics. There is total chaos and the reason behind this is a self proclaimed God man. Here the overlapping with The Mist is quite evident. The novel is really lengthy and it contains the whole town as a character. Too many names, too many activities. Some of the scenes are really gory and Stephen King is at his best. Somehow I was not quite sure about the verbal description in certain scenes.

Steve Job's Stanford speech, a rough summary

2011-10-21T23:33:00.001+05:30

The speech is divided into three parts. The first part is titled as connecting the dots. This is all about listening to your heart and following your heart. Even though Steve never graduated from college he learned certain things like calligraphy because he was interested in that subject. It was many years later that this particular field of study became useful. I.e when they were developing the font for apple computers. The second part is named as love and loss. He is defining the basic philosophy of his life. To do something that you love. Even though he was thrown outside apple due to some disagreements he was at heart a silicon valley fellow. He continued doing what he liked the most and that is why he was able to build Next computers and Pixar animation studios. The third and final part of his speech is about death. He is making fun of people who wants to go to heaven but who doesn't like to die. He is worried about time. He says that when he was diagnosed with cancer he knew that his time was running short and that made him more productive. He ends the last part of his speech by talking about a college magazine and its final issue. The parting words from editors of the magazine was - Stay Hungry and Stay Foolish.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Writing – Jeremy Harmer

2011-10-14T15:56:00.001+05:30

This blog is based on my review of a chapter 18 in The Practice 0f English Language Teaching by Jeremy Harmer, 3rd Edition. The chapter discusses the language skill of writing in detail.

The chapter begins with a discussion on handwriting and the importance of the same in the case of students whose ‘native-language orthography’ is different from English. He also remarks that the handwriting is a personal issue and striving for an uniform style is not desirable. The final outcome should be legible and readable. The advent of technology has greatly reduced the importance of the written texts, but still it is useful in academic and personal fields.

Spelling is another area where special care should be given to our students. They should be taught the differences in spelling as they occur in American and British English. Bad spellings always is ‘perceived as a lack of education or care’. Internet users are infamously famous for their habit of breaking the spelling rules.

The next section discusses the idea of reviewing. I am pretty excited about this section since there are two important sub sections which clearly gives the big picture about reviewing writing. The first one talks about the steps involved in reviewing.

Check Language Use ( Grammar, Vocabulary, Linkers).
Check Punctuation and Layout.
Check Your Spelling.
Check your writing for unnecessary repetition of words and/ or information.
Decide on the information for each paragraph, and the order the paragraphs should go in.
Note down various ideas.
Select the best ideas for inclusion.
Write a clean copy of the corrected version.
Write out a rough version.

The correct order for these steps will be 6, 7, 5, 9, 1 , 2 , 3, 4, and finally 8

Jeremy Harmer also discusses the Arndt’s model based on the Rom White and Valarie Arndt idea of revision. According to them ‘writing is rewriting; that re-writing – seeing with new eyes – has a central role to play in the act of creating a text. The same idea is shown in the picture below:

In the next section Jeremy Harmer discusses the different types of writing such as

Product writing: The written work is seen as the ultimate aim. Little attention is given to the steps involved in writing. This is recommended in situations where the instructor is hard-pressed for time.
Process writing: The above model can be taken as the best example of process writing. There is lots of brainstorming and idea collection that happens in this type of writing.
Genre writing: Kind of similar to process writing. The students are given pre-training in the genre that they are attempting to write. If the task is to write an obituary there are asked to read different types of obituaries that appeared in the media. They are asked to create a list of words that commonly appear in the genre.
Creative writing: This type of writing concentrates on the creative tasks such as poetry, novels and short stories.
Co-operative writing: This gives a chance for greater discussion and peer correction. ‘The generation of ideas is frequently more lively with two or more involved than it is when writers work on their own’. Writing in this case becomes a group activity.
Computer based writing: This type of writing is based on the word-processor software. The students feels relaxed and motivated because handwriting and spelling can never be bad when using a word processor. The students also gets a chance to send emails to each other in the class or to somebody who is away. This will happen under the strict supervision of the teacher. This email communication may also lead to the formation of mouse pals instead of pen pals.

Role of a teacher in a writing class

Motivator: Motivate the slow learners. To give the students some cues and hints to kick start their writing process.
Resource: The teacher should be quite resourceful by ‘supplying info0rmation and language’
Feedback provider: Teachers should respond in a positive and encouraging way to the content what the students have written.

Creative Writing - A Beginners Note

2011-09-14T09:21:00.000+05:30

Any writing that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic and technical forms of writings. Novels, epics, short stories, poems, Screen writing and play writing also falls into the category of Creative Writing. Creative writing is also treated as a study program which trains individuals to perfect their skills in writing. Creative writing is a more contemporary and process oriented name for what has been known as literature. Creative writing is believed to focus on student’s self-expression. Creative writing has evolved into a discrete discipline now offered through BFA’s (Bachelor of Fine Arts) and MFA’s (Master of Fine Arts). The courses are kind of bridge between the artistic pursuits and academic study. Creative writing students are encouraged to get involved in extra-curricular writing based activities such as publishing clubs, school based literary magazines or newspapers, writing contests, writing colonies or conventions and extended educational classes. Creative writing is taught in a workshop format rather than seminar style. Some notable terms that crop up in these sessions are – peer critique, format, re-writing, editing, structural techniques, genres, idea generating, unblocking the writer’s block. There are two main arguments supporting creative writing as an academic program

1) It helps to improve the writing skills of learners.

2) It also enables an in-depth study of literary terms and mechanisms that can be applied. (Instead of learning about the literary terms it is be better to use the same in creative adventures of our own.)

Some academicians feel that creative reading should go hand in hand with creative writing. The former gives the necessary boost to the writer. Creative writing makes us wake up. Creative Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood from your forehead. Creative writing is a kind of writing that uses language in imaginative and bold ways. Creative writing falls into two main categories fiction and non – fiction. Fiction is writing that tells about made-up events and characters. Novels and short stories are examples of fiction. Fiction that contains imaginary situations and characters that are very similar to real life is called realistic fiction. Nonfiction is a type of writing about real people and events. Essays, biographies, autobiographies and articles are all examples of nonfiction.

Writing - A Scientific approach

2011-09-11T13:09:00.000+05:30

Writing is a method of communication. Writing is speaking to others on a paper or on a computer screen. Writing is a kind of output which results from voracious reading, long experience or maturity. Writing provides self-satisfaction and boosts ones confidence. The one motto that matters when it comes to writing is – Practice maketh perfect. Writing becomes a necessary communicative tool which students use to organize thoughts to effectively convey to a specific audience.

The steps that we should follow in writing are

Pre- writing - Ss generate their own thoughts.
Composing – The art of writing the first draft.
Editing – Reviewing and polishing the first draft.

Good writers always think about the following:

What does the writing look like? ( Form)
Who will read my writing? ( Audience)
What is the writing about? ( Topic)
Why am I Writing ( Purpose)

Types of writing based on the content and style:

Narrative writing – Basically a story, it introduces the Wh’s of setting like – Who, Why, Where, When) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrative

Descriptive writing – Basically essay writing, it introduces the sensory perception into the act of the writing. The style is often prosaic. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essay

Informative Writing - Deals with only one subject. Can be more technical in nature and it has some elements of an essay. http://www.hi.com.au/engproj/pdf/HEPEveryday.pdf

Technical Writing - This type deals exclusively with facts and technology. It is writing stripped of its sensory and narrative beauty. This is for the serious minded. The technical writers are known as API writers also. API stands for (Application programming interface)

Writing - A Brief Review

2011-08-31T15:22:00.000+05:30

Writing in the new Era

Inspired by the book that I am reading now - The Big Book Shelf by Sunil Sethi

This blog attempts to capture the word writing in its various forms. Whether it is the cave paintings of Altamira or the writings of a literary mind, the act of writing is essentially an act of self-expression. The poets in the Royal court houses often wrote to appease their Lordships and Highnesses. Shakespeare often wrote his plays for the English Royal class. They were the ones who funded his projects and sponsored his so called ‘idea-hunting jaunts’. Same was the case with Marlowe and other poets and dramatists. Writers often became the chroniclers or keepers of time. They could mummify the ‘zeitgeist’ in their writings. Thus most of Shakespearean works are textbooks of history and anthropology. Maybe for Shakespeare, his works were just acts of literary celebration. He never would have intended his writings to be treated as historical log books. Just as the proud and excited cave painter of Altamira who drew his hunting exploits on the cave wall, Shakespeare enjoyed his acts of creation.

Writing was an essential part of the schools of thoughts in Ancient Greece and Rome. The grammar schools were training grounds for compositions and translations. The training was grueling and the scribes were given an official status upon the successful completion of learning. Some of them even travelled with the Kings and Emperors to record events of war and achievements. They were the real journalists who got embedded in the annals of history. Plato and Aristotle recorded most of their teachings as writings. The teachings were given in the oral form and their disciples would painstakingly copy them into the written form. With the spread of Christianity, Religious writings became a popular form of writing. Mostly limited to Bible translations and recording the exploits of Saints, these writings gave us the picture about the life inside a monastery or a nunnery. Christian faith leaders traveled widely and they used to record their daily events in a log book. These log books can be considered as the precursor to the branch of travel writing. Some of them even travelled to the Holy Land with the crusaders to capture the religious action. Textbooks and Dictionaries ruled the roost during the classical age. Dr. Johnson compiled the dictionary thus giving a new meaning to the word - Lexicography. The rebellious romantic age that followed was lost in the writings worshipping Nature and inanimate things. The genres of writing namely - Fiction, nonfiction, short-story, drama, poetry, essay ( Prose) became widely popular and there was a wide spread interest in arts and humanities.

In todays world writing is a carefully studied art. There are literary clubs and book clubs to promote the latest trends in literature. Most of the writing done today is for the media. The Radio, Television, Cinema and the Internet dominate the scene. The birth of Journalism ( The fourth estate) led to the new type of writings like features, columns, opinion, snippets, etc.

Writing is also accorded an academic status with Academic writing being taught in many colleges and universities. Universities and Colleges offer courses in creative writing and an MFA degree is seen as a systematic way of mastering the art of writing. There are online versions of writing courses which has led to the mass production of words in the written form. The two types of writing namely - Process and Product writing has gained much popularity among scholars and teachers alike. The Internet offers new avenues for writing such as blogging, micro blogging and even content writing for websites. On a serious note writing is also being used in health industry and tourism industry. In the former writing as seen as a form of therapy for curing the metal burden of trauma patients and in the latter it is seen as a tool to create a verbal description of exotic places and events.

The Mute Boy and the Tattooed Girl - Character Study

2011-08-29T12:59:00.000+05:30

One character lives in one book whereas the other lives in a trilogy. The two characters that feature in these two books - Edgar Sawtelle in ‘The Story of Edgar Sawtelle’ by David Wroblewski and Lisabeth Salander in the Steig Larsson’s - Millennium trilogy (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl who played with Fire and The Girl who kicked the Hornet’s Nest).

These four books introduced me to the new habit of reading books using my Ipad. This blog is an attempt to define the character of these two literary beings. I have divided this character study into three segments,

A brief character profile.
Titular hero status.
Overlapping traits.

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle:

Edgar Sawtelle is a story set amidst the world of dog breeding. The story is replete with terminologies related to dog breeding. Sawtelle is the name of the fictional breed of dogs that figure prominently in the book. Edgar is a mute boy and he is happy to live with his father and mother until the death of his father under suspicious circumstances. The death happens soon after the arrival of his paternal uncle who was leading an estranged life. Edgar has his own suspicions about his father’s death and is uneasy about the presence of his uncle at home and near his mother. Edgar decides to leave home and Almondine, his pet dog and embarks on a journey to the neighboring woods with three puppies. His life in the wild is portrayed in all its grandeur. His wanderings and the events are described in great detail. After a few weeks of wandering Edgar decides to return home and face his father’s killer and the woman who was once his mother. He faces his destiny in the fire engulfed Sawtelle kennel.

The Tale of Lisabeth Salander

Lisabeth is a young woman who possess a great knowledge about computers and the Internet. She uses modern gadgets like a iBook and the hacking software Asphyxia ( maybe fictional). She is an employee of Milton Security Agency. She appears in the first book - ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ and works as an assistant to Blomkvist , a journalist who is assigned with a private investigation by the head of a rich family in Sweden. She helps him by digging information about his clients and at one point even saving him from the clutches of a sadistic sex pervert. In the second book she is after her father Zalenokov who had tortured her mother and had made her childhood a mess by putting her in the mental asylum. In this book titled - ‘The Girl Who Played with the Fire’ she is not with Blomkvist and she has amassed a fortune. The story ends with the death of her father and her subsequent hospitalization. The third book opens with the preparation for Lisabeth Salander’s trial. The concluding part of the trilogy titled ‘The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest’ reveals to the reader Salander’s true identity and how she comes out of the courthouse a winner after burying her horrid past.

Titular Hero Status:

It is the boy versus the girl. The mute boy is Edgar Sawtelle and the tattooed girl is Lisabeth. Both of them are the titular heroes in their respective literary worlds. The stories revolves around them and they are the ones who take the fictional action forward. The authors have invested their time and energy to delineate them. Edgar has got a problem and he is bent on finding a solution to the same. His trip to the wilderness gives him a chance to explore his mind and take a decision. Lisabeth is quite capable of doing things in her own way and nothing can stop her from that.

Character Overlapping:

When I compared these two characters I found the following common traits in them:

Loneliness ( Solitude): Both the characters can be found searching for a lonely space in this world. They are not that social and are mostly inwardly in their pursuits. For Edgar, maybe his muteness is a reason and for Lisabeth Salander it is her troubled childhood. They spend time in solitude but emerge from this brief isolation, stronger and more determined about their causes. Edgar’s wild trip and Salander’s foreign trip are illustrations for this.
Silence: They don’t speak much. For Edgar, this gives him more opportunity to see and hear more. Lisabeth is an introvert. The only person to whom she has opened her heart is her lesbian friend Minnie and to some extent she has reveled her inner thoughts to Blomkvist.
Exploring / Adventurous: Both the characters are keen on adventure and they are risk takers. Edgar takes a great risk when he ventures out into the wilderness with no food and proper clothes accompanied by three yearling dogs. Salander takes on the mighty Swedish government using hacking tools and her network of hackers.
Independent: Salander and Edgar are strong willed independent characters. They make their own decisions and carry on with the act of chasing their own destinies.

Utopia vs Dystopia

2011-08-26T14:23:00.000+05:30

The world we live in is the world we acquire through our five sensibilities. This shapes our world view. While keeping one foot firmly in 'our' world, we tend to stretch and see the worlds beyond. The worlds that exist in the media, Internet or even a tourist brochure. The other world is always tempting and alluring. It is clean and beautiful and it is replete with limitless possibilities.

The advertisement /marketing industry has constantly exploited this yearning in human beings. A close examination of the images projected through the media bears an example to this. This kind of representation is stronger when it comes to the portrayal of real estate deals e.g A new township or a new apartment. It also resonates in ads related to detergents and dental products.

There are pockets in our world where everything resembles an utopia. They are rare and mostly inaccessible to the ordinary. In the world of words ( Literature) the perfect world is named as Utopia after the title of the novel by the same name by Thomas More in 1516. The world utopia itself has undergone many transitions during the course of human evolution. From a literary concept it became a social phenomenon.

For many centuries this 'fragment of imagination' drove the world in search of a panacea to the universal maladies. The direct off shoot of this is the branch of philosophy is titled Utopian socialism. The communist manifesto is an another attempt to define a perfect world. There were attempts to create a perfect world of fun and frolic in the form of theme parks and amusement centers. The french cultural studies critic Jean Baudrillard names this as simulacra or hyper real. He was also aware of the influence of the influence of the visual media on human minds. The Disney theme park serves a world of escapism. In a larger understanding of the word, it resembles the definition of art where the artist draws the audience into a world where they live for a momentary span of time.

Off lately I watched a classic by Clint Eastwood titled - A perfect world. The movie is about the relationship between an outlaw and his 10 year old hostage. This where the heart of the movie lies. It is also a perfect example of the dystopia (outlaw) co existing with the so called utopia ( kid). Roger Ebert examines the movie and finds the perfect one-liner to describe this relationship - The child is the father of the man. The two worlds spills over to the other and sometimes we feel that in the climax the roles are reversed.

Just like the beauty and the beast syndrome sometimes it is essential to have the co existence of the dystopian and utopian world views in our lives.

The New World Order - The Rise of the Unrisen

2011-08-09T19:43:00.000+05:30

This blog is based on the recent events that happened on our planet. The events put together can be said as the foundation for a new world order which is augmented by technology and youth power. As I prepare this blog London is burning. The killing of a teenager has triggered wide spread violence and looting in many parts of the UK. The BBC and CNN were busy blabbering about the Arab Spring and the tremors felt in the middle east are now preoccupied by the stories of decadence and ruin in their own land. The point that they missed is the changing mindset of the youth irrespective of their country of origin. The elderly generation knew the value of patience but the youth of today are more pressing when it comes to needs. They need instant gratification and quick answers. The Met police in UK is dealing with a mob who wants an on the spot verdict on the teenager's death. So on one side we have the socially sensitized young citizens who can see through the flimsy tricks of the politicians and emperors. They are net savvy and use technology as a medium to socially sensitize and mobilize others in their own country and even abroad. On the other side we see the rise of the voiceless. This group were living on the seams of a metropolis and now they are striking back. They are socially ostracized and they live in the lower rungs of the social ladder. They don’t want to live as ordinary anymore they aspire for an extraordinary life.

The economy plays a large role in this new world order. The recession ghost is back and many are rendered jobless leading to more social instability. There is also the threat of money accumulating in certain individuals. The governments are rendered helpless. The myth that America will triumph forever has disintegrated.

There are also threats posed by the indigenous people of Europe and in other parts of the world. What happened Oslo is based on this feeling. The same can be said about the middle east where the Arabs are demanding more representation - words like Omanization, Kuwaitisation, Saudisization are quite common in todays world.

So I see lots of new conflicts rising everyday. It is between the young generation and elderly generation, between the rich and the poor, and between the indigenous and the settlers.

Grammar and Me

2011-06-10T15:05:00.001+05:30

This blog captures my tryst with English grammar for the past few months. It will take into account the topics that were explained to Vocational Trainees. The sad thing about this blog is that the first version of the same was in inadvertently deleted from my PC. The lesson is learned in the hard way and now i am better equipped when it comes to preparing a blog. I am using Evernote for creating the first draft of the blog. The app is available in both my iPhone and iPad. So it is easy to sync using the Internet. There is no hassle of copying into a flash or a HDD. It simply synchronizes with the server. The updated file can be accessed in my Iphone and Ipad and even my PC. I plan to write about some of my the most common topics that are taught here. There is no in-depth analysis of language sentences or structures. The basic building blocks of language is discussed in a practical way. The grammatical items are not studied in isolation but seen in the context of their daily usage. The methodology that I have adopted is based on the premise that language is used to describe the world. If that is the case then grammar helps in the correct way of describing the world. In other words grammar helps the user of any language to speak or write in an accepted way with the other users of the same language. The methodology also takes into account the users experience with the language. The learner should have minimal competence in the language especially grammar.

The first grammatical item he or she will be introduced to will be - verbs,nouns and adjectives. Using pictures and other audio visual aids learner will get to the know the types of actions and how the actions are described using adjectives.

Tom kicked the ball swiftly - Noun + Verb + Noun + Adjective

This combination is used especially to talk about people and to describe their actions. At this stage the details of these grammatical items are not divulged. There is no references to pronouns, regular/ irregular and comparatives. These topics will introduced at a later stage.

In the next stage, the concept of prepositions is introduced - of time, of place and of movement. This will enhance the linguistic descriptive power of the learner. If the need arises, there can also be training in Numbers,mathematical register, weather and even time expressions. As a follow up to the prepositions the idea of imperatives also can be introduced. Directions and verbal walk-throughs can be arranged in such a way that there is an integrated approach towards learning. As an addition interrogatives also can be taught here as they are required to ask for directions.

Once the learner has grappled with the above mentioned topics, the next level of grammar topics can be introduced starting with comparatives, modal auxiliaries, abilities and possibilities, some tense items like - present continuous and future ( using will and going to). These topics will reinforce what he or she has learned and will give a better understanding of English Grammar. Once these stage is achieved then new can slowly moved towards analysis of single sentences and then on to complex paragraphs. It will be more like a poetry appreciation class, where the learner is asked to jot down the grammatical items that he can identify in the text. These textual dissections calls for a large amount of discussions and debates and the use of a standard reference book for consultation.

Grammar teaching can be made quite interesting by using various audio visual aids. The first foremost aid is the dictionary either in the soft copy of hard copy format. Then the use of language softwares like Face to Face and Language in Use. There are also several podcasts available from the BBC like Grammar challenge. There is also a useful podcast by the name Grammar girl.

Thus Grammar learning is never a boring thing. It can be made interesting and result oriented. The methodology or the approach matters a lot.

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2011-06-05T00:22:00.003+05:30

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2011-06-05T00:22:00.001+05:30

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2011-06-05T00:21:00.003+05:30

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2011-06-05T00:21:00.001+05:30

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Notes from Warren Buffets Management Secrets – Audio book version - Read by Mary Buffet.

2011-06-04T15:07:00.001+05:30

There are some quick tests which can be applied to see whether the company that is going to employ you is in good shape. It is always good to check the yearly per share earnings. A company that shows consistency and exhibiting an upward trend will always excel in business. Erratic earnings are not a good sign. Absence of long term debts will also serve as an indicator to the health quotient of the company. By gauging the debt load of the company one will know the strength of the company. These companies will have a long term serving history. The company also should have high competitive interests and excess capital. The managerial opportunities of the company should also be good because that will prevent the company from going under. The most important that should be considered is the DCA – Durable competitive advantage. It is long term and helps the company to stay afloat maintaining the competitive edge.

The book also discusses the idea of delegation. Delegation becomes more important when one is involved in more diverse businesses. There is a philosophy behind the art of delegation. It is all about delegating the authority. Delegating to a certain extent can be equated with the idea of abdicating. Delegation is not a desirable idea in micro-managing. It is always good to delegate the job to better job and manager. Delegation involves a certain amount of decision power also. Once you are delegated a task you are wholly responsible for the decisions that you make. There are three rules governing the application of rules in delegation.

1) Every business culture is unique

2) Competent managers should be left alone to run their own businesses.

3) Managers should be hardworking, passionate and intelligent. They should also have great deal of integrity – This rule applies to the concept of making the right choice when selecting a manager to delegate your work

The manager chosen for the task should possess proven track record. He should be ready to take chances. He should possess the managerial talent to become the turnaround artist. A manager should increase the revenues and free up the capital for diverse investments. The most important thing is not to change the managers frequently.

The next chapter discusses the concepts of victor or victim. We should also be true to ourselves. There is always an inner and outer report card. Warren was deeply influenced by his father – Howard. The ‘internal locus of control’ is the catch phrase that shows how responsible you are for your actions and words. When you win you are the one who will win and when you lose you are the one lost it. It is better not to dwell too long on failures and also take responsibility for the failures. Victors always make good managers. Victims meanwhile are busy blaming the world and finding lame excuses. To be a victor it is always good to work at a job you love – You will jump out of your bed early in the morning because the love for your job will beat even the best alarm clock available in the market. What we love in the name of greed is a bad management. Victors likes doing what they love, money is not driving them. People who rise to the top are the ones who love what they do. People love to hire individuals who will take pride in their work.

The next chapter discusses how to put a winning sales team together. The team essentially should have a passion for the product that they are selling. The team should comprise of people who believes in the product. One question that any employer would like to ask to his prospective employee will be – How obsessed are you with the job? The anecdote of a lady who lived till the age of 104 taking care of her store is the best example of a passionate being who loved what she did. In fact she didn’t go for any vacation because she felt miserable when she stayed away from the store. Her only hobby was to drive around the town checking the competition level from other stores. All the top managers in any firm are obsessed with their work. They are all love the business. If you are smart manager than that is the icing on the obsessively delicious cake.

The next chapter talks about how honest plays a major part in today’s business. The words candor and candid plays a big role in making your business establishment a success. This is one of the key character traits to aspire to. A CEO who misleads others in public will also mislead them in private. Managers who promise to make the numbers will also make up the numbers.

There is a chapter devoted to the concept of managing costs. Profit is the life blood of the business. Managers should be cost conscious but should not be fanatical about the same. Benjamin Franklin has remarked that if you know how to spend less than what you get, and then you can have the philosopher’s stone. Cutting cost is the fastest and easiest way to increase the bottom line.

The Boy in the pumpkin field

2011-06-03T20:03:00.001+05:30

He got up early in the morning. He is used to this routine especially when the pumpkins are ready to be harvested. He looked through the window and saw the pumpkins lying in the field. Today they will be taken out and will be sold in the market. He heard his father call out his name. He rushed outside to see his father and mother loading the pumpkins in the pick up truck. He too joined them. Once the loading was done he was asked to sit in the front seat of the truck. His father bade farewell to his mother and got beside him. The engine roared to life and soon they were on their way to the pumpkin market.The boy stared at the passing houses and thought about the people who are sleeping. He saw some children walk towards the school for early lessons.they arrived at the pumpkin market and he helped his father to unload.He was asked to sit amidst the pumpkins while his father went around the market. He was looking at other pumpkin traders who were sitting beside. He felt so insignificant among the big and rounded pumpkins. He took out a knife from his fathers satchel and started chopping the pumpkins. He wanted the pumpkins to disappear from his life forever.

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The Warm Monster

2011-05-20T14:10:00.001+05:30

She was walking hurriedly through the corridor.She had a sheaf of papers in her hand. Her mind was racing faster than her body. In her mind there was just one magical word - copies, copies. She reached the room where the monster was kept. There was nobody in the room. She kept the papers on the monster and turned on the monster.The monster spoke to her in some unintelligible mechanical language. She ignored. She was immobile but her mind was still racing - this time to the learning place. She waited for the monster to warm up. Her impatience grew with the passing time. She started cursing and ultimately started kicking the monster. There was a metallic sound. The monster opened it's big mouth and swallowed her.There was short period of meaningful silence. After sometime the monster warmed up and started the copying work. When he came to the room, the room was empty except for the copies that were lying on the floor.

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Boy and his legs

2011-05-20T11:48:00.001+05:30

Once upon a time there lived a boy. He was nameless and even today he is nameless. He was living with his father and mother. His mother used to send him to market to fetch grocery and much needful things. The boy always enjoyed these short excursions
He liked to walk and run. He never used any mechanical contraptions to cover the distances. He moved on his legs and he felt as if they were his "magic legs". He never used to travel through the straight path to the market. He took the path that was curvy because it offered the scope for more sightseeing and explorations.One of these paths had a special charm on him. He frequented that path to relive that charm and he felt that there were creatures in that path staring at him. He always had to muster courage to walk through that path. One day as he was walking through that he saw that the path was covered in snow and air around was misty. He treaded carefully and was soon lost in the thick fog. Nobody saw the boy after that day.

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Size Does Matter

2011-03-04T02:39:00.000+05:30

This was the catch line for the movie Jurassic Park. The movie introduced or re-introduced the idea of giant creatures, which sort of expanded our cinematic imagination. In many ways, these giant creatures of Hollywood subdued the other tiny/small creatures of the screen. Earlier we had critters, ET's, Chuck the doll and human forms like Jason, terrorizing us. With Jurassic Park the screen, bullies just got bigger.

This blog explores the idea of size and discusses how the size and shape creates a power circle around it. The classic example for this is from our childhood when we used to get intimidated by big, fat bullies who were elder to us. They behaved like gang leaders or goons from another world. They were able to wield power just because of their size. The leaner, thinner ones were always at the receiving end. In popular culture, the weak ones are shown as the ones who possessed more brains than the stronger ones who always excelled because of their brawn power. The toon series Tom and Jerry kind of puts the whole issue in perspective. The cat is bigger and wields more power than the mouse. In one way Tom and Jerry cartoon series appeals to the mind of the young ones, because they identify with the mouse and enjoys the punishments meted out to the so called bully figure - Tom

Even in our daily lives, size plays an important. Certain professions demand a certain amount of shape and size. A police officer should have a hefty body so that he is seen as a dominating figure. I remember reading article about a train ticket collector in Mumbai suburban train service who was meted out harsh treatment just because of his diminutive size. His colleagues who are better build than him was always revered and feared by the public. The article is quoted below for better clarity:

Manoj Paralkar, a passenger who witnessed the incident, said, "I was on the platform to board a train when I saw a TC examining passengers' tickets. All of a sudden, a ticketless passenger violently pushed the TC onto the tracks and fled." S M Karyakarte, senior inspector (GRP), Borivli, said, "We have registered a case of accidental injury." Might is right On the other hand, some TCs never face anything like what Dabre did, because of their intimidating physique that comes across as formidable.

Amol Buchade, bodybuilder and winner of the prestigious 2010 Rustam-e-Hind title, and Keshav Singh, another bodybuilder are two TCs who say that they have never faced such incidents in their careers.

As a teacher, I have experienced both the sides of this 'size does matter' syndrome. Earlier I used to have a thin structure. A few years back, I started putting on weight and the new figure of mine has had an impact on my teachings well. Boys/Girls see me in a new light and I can see that they do notice me when I stand before them. Maybe this is just a figment of my own imagination but I am happy with my size.

In my opinion, a dwarf sized personality holding a bossy position will have little effect on his/her subordinates. It is always the survival of the fittest and biggest.

Personal excellence and Me

2011-02-14T14:06:00.000+05:30

Excellence is a difficult word. The difficulty is not because of the linguistic affiliation of the word but due to the efforts that goes into defining that word. There are different word combinations that goes along with the word excellence - pursuit of excellence, trying for excellence, how to excel - the list goes on. Excellence in one way is to become superior in something. The act of becoming superior is not an easy one. Excellence is hard to achieve. It requires time, energy and efforts. Excellence is also a state of mind. The mind is restless, always thinking about new ways through which it can seek some freshness in life. A mind seeking excellence will perpetually exist in the Ulyssesian mind frame, which is defined by these words - To strive, To seek and not to yield.

In my life I have always respected this concept. I have seen people around me who have achieved excellence. These people were practitioners of excellence. They had their role models around them and they constantly drew energy from them. Some examples are movie directors, authors, and even ordinary people whom I met on the streets. I have always felt the positive and energetic energy levels from these people. There are too many both ordinary and extraordinary who fills me up with a sense of excellence. I think it is always good to orient our mind to those people who stay positive and who celebrate creativity. There are also others who fall into two categories listed below

0. Self-centered beings - These groups always does things for the sake of doing. I like to quote the lovely and meaningful lines from Ted Hughes's poem Thrushes to explain these type which goes like this 'Their acts worship itself'. They lack innovativeness and the enterprising spirit.

1. Negativity is thy name - The second category wallow in their own negative world. The world is not a self-created one. It is rather imposed on them because they never tried to create a world of their own.

Technology to a certain extent helps me to stay in the sphere of excellence. I update myself with the latest news from the world of technology and by divine grace today possesses two gadgets, which can be seen as the tipping point of the world of technology - iPhone and iPad. Technology to me means Internet and this leads me to audio and video podcasts, downloading audio books, ePub and PDF books, apps that are interesting and informative. I also use iPod to listen to music and play station to play games.

Reading helps me to build confidence in terms of word power and sentence structure.

Indirectly it helps me to feel more confident when I write. I make it a point that I read at least a few pages before hitting the sack. I have to admit that these days my reading is slow compared to earlier days. Anyhow, reading is something, which gives me the necessary courage to face the world using words.

Following excellence is not easy. One should have the courage to rise above the ordinary and the mundane. One should also have the courage to look beyond the mediocre and turn one's attention to extraordinary things. In a way one should always compare oneself with others and measure the difference. Instead of feeling happy about the positive/ good qualities that you already have it is good to move on. It is better to identify the areas of interest and polish them periodically. That's the only way one can master the art of excellence.

Teacher and Teaching.

2010-12-04T17:59:00.000+05:30

All these years of teaching have taught me the following

There is nothing like real learning or teaching. the teacher is just a time filling, pseudo-being who creates a make belief situation where the students feel that they have learned something ( Humanities)
Teacher enjoys the act of teaching seldom recognizing the presence of learners. He reaches a kind of frenzied level through the act of teaching which is most of the time narcissistic and self-centered.
The teacher only opens up new paths in the minds of the students. The student should never feel enslaved to the teacher. They should rise above the teacher and find his own path.
A teacher can never perform the same way throughout an academic session. Some days are good and some days are bad. Consistency is something difficult in teaching. ( this matters only if the teacher is bit sympathetic or empathetic to his students.
It is easy for the teacher to sulk into the role of a Facilitator, but he should be aware of the fact that the role demands more than that of a puppeteer.
Education is highly commercialized and marks most of the time gets equated with money. As students they need marks and as teachers we need money. So it is difficult for the teacher to say - This is what you deserve you, Moron.
Research and updating is sadly missing from the teacher's life. Even if he is teaching ABCD, he should prepare himself to execute the lesson.
Teacher should always see not the student but a normal human being with all emotions and confusion. It is easy to teach after a proper understanding of the target audience.

The Culture of Noise

2010-11-12T17:49:00.001+05:30

It took one month and half to properly form ideas regarding this blog. The much needed noiseless environment was missing all these days. The blog partly was inspired by the home visit I had a few weeks back. I felt that the Indian socio-cultural ambience is filled with noise. I became acutely aware of this because of the two year stay in Oman a country which is relatively calmer and less noisy. No blaring horns, No crowded spaces, people too are slow and relaxed, no pressure on them to invade a space as there is no public transport system. It is strange that here people don’t use the horns while driving. The only time that Ihave heard them honking the horn is when they celebrate the marriage of their friends. It is a lovely sight to see the cars lined up one after the another moving in a sort of procession towards the bride’s home, kind of announcing their arrival through blaring horns and sometimes even shouting. The same applies to the celebration in case of a football event. World Cup football was one such event. The fact that most Omani’s wear a white dish-dasha brings in a feeling of peace and harmony. Most of them even prefer to drive white painted cars. It is a rare sight to see a colour other than white. I feel the culture has some influence on the noise level. I am defining culture through demographic, social and personal markers.

At this juncture I would like to comment upon the noise that is sometimes created in our innerscape – The Mind. Most of time these noise effects clear thinking and logical behaviour. I have seen people who are disturbed from within and most of the time they are so engrossed with the inner voice that they don’t mind the outer world with its tumultuous sounds.

It is even debated whether man or woman make more noise. In my experience the credit for this should go to woman. I am not biased and my statement is purely based on real-life experience both in the family and the workplace. I have experienced the non-stop chatter of my female friends and colleagues much to the annoyance of myself and my male-colleagues. most of the this leads to exchange of heavy words in the form of opinions and comments.

Being a teacher for the past 10 years, I can say that it is teacher’s dream to handle a class where his students are quite attentive and less distracted. Real learning happens in such a situation. The one to one correspondence between the student and teacher is always possible when there is an ambiance of silence. Silence also brings in the scope for listening not just to what others are saying but even to our innermost thoughts and

My world of apps, Essential apps for SE Xperia

2010-07-05T08:36:00.001+05:30

When you buy something, the excitement usually remains for a week or two. By this time you would have finished exploring the gadget and the interest will fizzle down. After acquiring my Sony Ericcson Xperia 1 which is a windows 6.1 based mobile this flame is sill kept alive. I think it is appropriate to the write about the buying pattern behind this product before discussing the apps that are installed in the device. There was a pull towards the I phone which was priced at 340. After having a cursory glance at X1 and I phone, me and my wife had our cup of tea which helped to straighten things out. X1 was the winner. I liked it because of its sleek design, touch screen. I had seen the phone ( can i call it a phone when actually it is a smart device) with my Principal a few days back and in one way my decision to buy X1 was influenced by that sighting.

This blog is not about comparing X1 with any other products. This will only answer the question – How good is the X1 for me? or by extension - The ways in which the X1 is helping in my personal and professional life. The apps in the device is handpicked from different websites and it was indeed a laborious process. The process also encourages lots of creativity and long hours of internet searching from the user – that's me. It also opened up the world of internet like never before. I got acquainted with websites which dealt with developing the required software for X1. Some of the websites with which i got familiarised are www.freewarepocketpc.com, www.softonic.com, www.xdadevelopers.com, www.omarket.com, www.wapking.com, the list seems to be endless. It was more like doing deep fishing done in these websites. Trial and error method was used in gathering of the apps.

Some software's were installed and later I had to remove them because of the incompatibility issue. Some of them even crashed X1. This led me to discover the beauty of resetting the device clearing the storage area. The process of installing the software and arranging the apps will take approximately 7-8 hours. This activity is fun filled and creates a sense that of total control over the device.

Let me discuss the top five apps that i like in my X1. There are many but I prefer to give others a nominal reference in this blog.

# 1 – Clean Ram

This is a useful app which I downloaded from Omarket. The app helps me by cleaning the system of its RAM and saving some memory. This is an important act since it helps me to make my device perform faster with much efficiency and speed. I usually run the this app three or four time a day and I can see a marked difference in the way the system functions. After running the app each time I could almost hear my system heaving a sigh of relief. The app is a must have for all those who think that their system needs a fresh lease of life.

# 2 Facebook for Windows Mobile

This is the windows mobile version of the popular social networking sight Facebook which brings together friends together. Through this Facebook app I can update my status, Upload photos and videos, comment on the status of others and like and unlike the status of my friends messages. The Facebook app is does good things for me since it is the best way to stay connected and make the world know about my interests and passions. Moreover through this app I am able to learn about new events and the latest technology. The latest one which i discovered is about the TED domain which has got innumerable videos of live speeches done by various people all over the world. Using this app I can write a short review about a movie sitting right inside the theatre. I can also take a photo and upload it immediately to the web.

#3 Kinoma Free play

This app is does lots of good to a book lover like me. Recently I have developed a penchant for audio books and this app acted as the starting point for that. I can listen to 5 minute audio file of hundreds of audio books through this app. The app partners with audible.com, New York Times and many other content providers to give the audio streaming. The best part is that when we log into audible.com we are entitled for a free audio book. The book title is – The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. This app helps me to be in touch with the latest book releases in both the fiction and non fiction category.

# 4 My Note

This is again a great app for brain storming ideas and thoughts. The notes are scribbled using the stylus on the screen. It is magical and quite appealing to the eyes. The colour and size of the pen can be changed and we can add more notes depending on the idea. This note making app is used for class preparation and even for preparing this blog. I can also scribble the ideas that occur to me using this app so that i can retrieve it when required. This app can be good tool in research and to make easy and quick notes.

# 5 Live Journal

After seeing the Momento app in I phone i was searching for a similar one for windows mobile. I found one in Live Journal which even helps me to put my thoughts on the web. Since I have not popularised my Live Journal id, i am confident that many people will not read or comment on my thoughts. It is my earnest desire to document every step of my life in the form of a journal entry. I am sure that reading the same after a gap of time will bring in lots of memories.

# 6 Omarket

This is a market place for downloading apps for windows mobile phone. The steps are simple. Select the app that is appealing to you, read the reviews and download to install it in your phone. Sometimes the will not work on my device in which case I may have to uninstall the same. Some apps are so problematic that I may have to reset my device to start it all over again. As I had mentioned in the beginning there are many apps that are installed in my device. Most of the apps are downloaded using Omarket.

apps # 6 and 7

Motweets - Tweeting app for windows mobile

Pocket Bible – Windows Mobile Bible software

apps # 8 and 9

Beyond Pod – App for downloading podcasts.

Pocket Painter – App for image editing and drawing.

Spb Insight – for RSS feeds.

The Elixir of Life - Sleep

2010-06-14T21:48:00.001+05:30

( This blog maps the pattern of sleep among human beings. As it is the usual practice this blog contains highly personalized views about one of the favourite habit of my students)

Last night my sleep was not that good. World cup South Africa takes a big chunk from my sleeping quota. The third match which starts at 10.30 local time gets over only at 12.30 am. The spirit of watching exciting football urges me to forgo my sleep. Last night it was Germany and Australia, who played their opening match. The match was one of the best matches played in the world cup so far. It had plenty of goals, 4 yellow cards and one red card. I am sleepy this morning but deep inside i feel satisfied and happy.

There used to be a stage in my life when I gave too much importance to sleep. I used to get up late, skip my breakfast and drag myself to the workplace. The rest of the day was spent lively way - handling classes and moving up and down working on loads and loads of extra-curricular activities which included theatre and book clubs. Now, looking back at those sleep dominated days, I feel that my mind was active than my body. Creativity took its own course and filled my life and other’s life around me with fresh ideas. I have a feeling that much of the ideas spring forth from my sleeping habits.

We can see several motifs based on sleep used in the literary world. The celebrated poet Emily Dickenson uses sleep as a motif in most of her poems. She compares sleep with death and even regeneration.

And then—to go to sleep—
And then—if it should be
The will of its Inquisitor,
The privilege to die—

Shelley in his poem Ode to the West Wind again brings in the allusion of sleep and death when he wrote:

O Thou,
Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed
The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low,
Each like a corpse within its grave, until
Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow
Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill
(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)

For Shelley, sleep was an phase which ultimately led to renewal. It is interesting to note that the poem Ode to the West Wind is filled with these recurring patterns of sleep and by extension death. There are umpteen examples found in the literary world which uses the sleep-death cycle.

And in the happy no-time of his sleeping,
Death took him by the heart.

(Wilfred Owen – Asleep)

Moving away from the world of words, the common man still enjoys the few hours of sleep after a day of hard work in office. It is a common saying that the rich cannot sleep due to the richness that they have accumulated. Maybe it is a socialist thought. The rich man is busy guarding his wealth whereas the poor man will sleep peacefully because he doesn’t have anything to protect. He lives under an open sky, with the stars above him.

It is interesting to watch people sleep.

People sleep when they travel.
People sleep when they are attending a meeting (even the Indian Prime Minister)
People tend to sleep when they watch cinema and television.
When people see the dead body of their friends or relatives they usually make this comment – “ He/She looks as if he/she sleeping”.

Creativity Unplugged

2010-06-08T11:28:00.001+05:30

A blog that is published after a gap of two months. Found creative catharsis through one-liners in Facebook, Twitter and Live Journal. It is nice to write these words which celebrate the true spirit of creative blogging.

This blog examines the concept of creativity. To define this term called I am journeying into my own self to gather some personalised thoughts. Like the concept of beauty, I think that creativity is also highly subjective.

Most of the time creativity is associated with the area of fine arts like painting, writing and singing. Parents make it a point that the child receives some amount of creative inputs right from his/her childhood. In today’s world, creativity is forced upon young minds. The child is exposed to the world of singing, dancing, drawing, and what not. I feel creativity is something that should be discovered by the child. Elders should only facilitate this discovery to happen. They can do this by introducing the child to various activities involving creativity like painting, building blocks, games etc.

Creativity is a natural process and the best literary metaphor to explain is the Wordsworthian quote “spontaneous overflow” of powerful thoughts. Creativity should not be limited to the writing sphere even though that is one of the first associations that come to our mind. I have always admired the spirit of creativity in Shakespeare. A playwright who is adored and read all over the world for his sheer mastery of language and the creative ways he has put his thoughts into paper. Shakespeare can be treated as a referral point when we discuss the concept of creativity. We see a creative genius who brought in different styles, themes, genres, into his works. He also had a muse who inspired him to write and write. When it comes to writing Shakespeare is indeed a muse who can inspire a budding writer.

It is a sin to talk about creativity only in relation to writing. Creativity is something that can be quite useful in our daily life. A person shifting to a new house can find the concept of creativity quite helpful. I enjoyed watching Wake up Sid, recently and the house shifting scenes involving Ranbir and Konkana Sen. The way they arrange the house in a creative manner exemplifies the fact that the creativity is a concept that exists beyond the world of words. Even in daily conversation creativity plays an important role. Fresh ideas and innovative styles make the conversation interesting. I recollect some expressions that me and my friend coined which made our daily conversations lively. Some of the words were – wtcied, wiporish, and lovely. The first one refers to the concept of destroying something.

Her dreams were wtcied because of his plans;

In life there we should be wiporish,

It’s a lovely day, isn’t it my lovely friend.

In teaching, to make the classes interesting I employ different methods and my superiors have always commented that the methods are highly creative and innovative. I feel that creativity is an integral part of fun learning. Language teaching/learning is made interesting using these methods.

Creativity is thus a concept that should be nurtured right from the childhood. It opens up the mind to a world of opportunities. It also makes life interesting for yourself and for others.

Sit, Sat, and Sitting…

2010-04-18T19:08:00.001+05:30

IT TOOK 2 MONTHS FOR ME TO WRITE THIS BLOG – Phew…

It is quite natural that animals (human beings included) always seek comfort. The body controls the mind in this aspect. The body wants to be cozy and relaxed and it decides a place which provides a perfect resting place. Since humans cannot lie down and conduct the business of life, the human body has settled for the second best option- to sit and to continue with the humdrum of existence. This blog discusses the concept of sitting i.e, seated position. I will examine the different aspects of this common human habit including the cultural, political, and the religious.

Let me begin this examination with the Indian scenario. The idea of sitting gains cultural,political colors in the Indian context. As children we were instructed not to sit in front of the elders. We were supposed to stand if an elder from our family walks by. The idea of sitting is linked to the value of respect. The same is the case with classrooms. Students should stand up when the teacher makes his/her entry. In the Hindu tradition the man and woman gets married seated in front of the fire. in some parts of India especially the south, the dead is taken to the grave seated in a chair. In many occasions sitting is regarded as the auspicious posture than standing. Meditation and yoga in India recommends different positions which are good for body,mind,and soul. The idea of rest/not in motion is connected to the act of sitting. Hindu priests performs the traditional adoration ceremony seated in front of the deity. most of them hail from upper caste section of the society and hence they have the upper edge in life. A lower caste being was not allowed to sit or even walk if there is a upper caste being around him.

In modern day life seat has become the epitome of power. Political parties yearn for power seats in the corridors of power. The public respect not the individual but the chair. Even in my little academic world sometimes i feel the power of chair. In a way a seat plays an important role in creating a hierarchical order in our lives. The person who has the seat or the who is sitting has more power than the one who is standing. The standing one is always waiting. This very evident when travelling in local trains and buses. The person who has the seat always casts a sympathetic glance at the one who is standing. Most of the time there ensues silly squabbles on the topic – who is the rightful owner of that seat? I am reminded of my childhood days when I used to fight with my brother for the window seat. Maybe that's the training we receive to fight it out in the big real adult world. Seats are seen as the anti dote for waiting. Bus/rail stations have waiting rooms with comfortable chairs so that weary traveler will never feel the pinch of waiting.

Modern day life has also brought in a special type of creatures known as couch potatoes. Their main preoccupation is to watch sitcoms and other gutterly creations that comes out of the idiot box. They combine this acts with the an endless supply of food. The mobile phones also add to these new fangled fashion of immobility. The cellular company made some quick bucks with the jingle – walk and talk.

thus goes on the story of a seat. I am sure that everybody will have their opinion about this topic, please feel completely to contact me at jith77@gmail.com

Have a seat/ say

Tales of Black Magic from Africa

2010-02-13T15:42:00.001+05:30

These days my colleagues and me are kind of jobless in the department. This is the time for us to sit and chat. We try our best to kill time. Mostly we engage in conversations that are aimless and misguided.

A few days back I initiated a discussion about Black magic in this part of the world. Some of my colleagues have spent years in this land. So I was sure that they will have lots and lots of tales to tell. And they didn’t fail me. This blog is about the tales of Black magic that I heard from my colleagues.

Flying Old Lady:

This is about a family and the weird experience they had some years back. One night after dinner they were seated in the living room, watching a football match. They were engrossed in the match when they heard a loud crash. The TV screen went black. They could make out that the noise came from the roof. They decided to move upstairs and enter the roof through the bedroom window. The father and the two sons moved together. They had a torch in their hand. When they reached the roof they saw that their TV dish antenna was twisted and in a mangled state. Lying next to the antenna was a dark figure.They approached the figure with careful steps. It was human and it was moving, groaning and whining pain. They focussed the beam of light on the human shape,so that they could see the face in the bright white light that fell from the torch. To their shock and disbelief they discovered the human figure to be the old lady who was their neighbour. They shook her and called her by the name. She responded in a feeble voice. They called her name, this time their voice didn’t hide the suppressed irritation. She looked at them, her eyes probed them from their wrinkled sockets. She spoke and what she said made them stare at her in disbelief. She told that she was flying in the air on a stick and she fell on the roof after hitting the dish antenna.

The Naked Roadies:

This happened a few months back in a mountainous area in this country. Two brothers were travelling in a Toyota pickup. They were returning home after completing some important work in the city. They were in a hurry to reach the comforts of their home. Moreover they were driving through the land where no human presence was there. All of a sudden one of them saw something whitish moving across the road. It was fast and he couldn’t make out what it was. The younger one who was driving the pickup was so shocked by what he saw, that he lost control of the vehicle. The pickup skidded to the right, and it crashed against the road barrier. Both of them were thoroughly shaken and they were silent for some time. Then the elder one who was in the navigator seat asked ‘Did you see them?’. ‘Them?’, the other one asked,what do you mean by them? ‘I saw three men, naked, with long white hair crossing the road’. The other one just stared at the road, his eyes eagerly scanning the darkness. They tried starting the engine and realized that the tyres were struck in the dirt. They had a sigh of relief when they found that their mobile phones were in working condition. So they contacted the police and waited for them to arrive.

( The tale will continue from the POV of the Police Officer)

I was about to go home when the office phone rang. I attended the call and from the other side I heard one voice excitedly speaking in hurried breaths. It was another call reporting about passengers stranded in the desert. I didn’t want to take up the job, but my conscience asked me to make the trip before heading home. So I set off in my patrol vehicle. The traffic in the city was light and soon I found myself moving towards the highway which led to the mountainous landscape. From a distance I could see the pickup with its lights flashing lying on the side of the road. I parked my patrol vehicle next to the pickup, got out and moved towards the two figures that were in the pickup. ‘What happened to the vehicle’ I asked them. They were silent for sometime and then one of them spoke ‘We saw something and we lost control of the vehicle’. ‘What did you see in this place?’ I asked ‘It seems to be bit strange that you saw something here’,I commented. ‘We saw naked men running across the road’, they replied in a quivering voice. I couldn’t believe what they just said. I was about to open my mouth to say something when I some cries and not far from where we stood I saw a group of naked men, with the long hairs almost touching the ground moving quick and fast across the road.

Black Magic is still practiced in this part of the world. The rich use it to make more money and the poor to harm the rich. Black men use it to woo the fair maidens and in some cases even to destroy whole tribes. It is a belief system surviving mainly because of the inherent fear factor that is present in the human heart.

The Constant Gardeners – Our Farmville Tale

2010-02-02T13:55:00.001+05:30

As I have mentioned before in this space, games have played a major role shaping sensibilities. The games added more variety in my life or in our life to be precise. Living in a land where the scope of entertainment is limited and restricted games helped us to remain in touch with the imagination. It all started with computer games and slowly it progressed to Play Station Portable games. The discovery of the shop in XXXX Mall with a wide range of PSP games made us explore the world of virtual games. Then Facebook happened and along with it happened Farmville. The game is played by thousands of people all round the world. The game is kind of hot topic these days in the Internet.

This blog is about Farmville. It is divided into two parts. In the first part, I will describe how we became ‘real’ farmers because of Farmville. The second part deals with the lessons that we can learn from Farmville.

Farmville made us think about the possibility of creating a farm in our flat. Some events happened that actually made us swing into action. One Thursday we got some plants from the church (thanks to the lady) We got some pepper plants and other plants. It was like receiving a puppy or kitten, with great care and concern we brought them home. The next step was to find a place to plant them. Again it was a neighbourly turn from another lady who brought us empty yoghurt buckets.We also used modified plastic water cans to plant them. We felt immense joy and satisfaction once we completed the task of planting. I kind of added some more plants by bringing some from my college garden. A visit to the restaurant made us procure some money plant. We also learnt about a popular belief that money plant should be stolen not borrowed. In the next step of expansion we were assisted by the kids in the neighbourhood who actively participated in the act of farming. This time we had the support of uncle neighbour who brought bag of mud from his ceramic factory. Kids joined us in mixing ordinary soil and the mud. As of now we have 15 plants and we hope that the number will grow in the future. It also depends on how long we are planning to stay here.

Farmville is a lovely way to do some virtual planting. The game helps you in the following ways:

Not-so-bad-way to kill time.
Gives a Sense of Hope.
It helps us in creating a sense of time, valuable lessons in time management can be learned.
It creates a kind of eco sense. Planting trees will almost becomes a habit.
You will become a good Samaritan and you will start helping others in real life not just your Farmville neighbours.

Education – A System Revisited

2010-01-19T22:13:00.001+05:30

There are umpteen articles upholding the true spirit of education. There are several individuals who have labelled themselves as educationists and academicians who have taken up the responsibility of plowing out the weeds in the system. The obvious question that crops up in one’s mind is - Why the system is still a failure? In my opinion education is just another time wasting exercise which aims at making the individual more and more dependent on the system. As a teacher for the past 9 years, I have seen the concept of education crumbling under money pressure. Education became a means of earning a livelihood. It has become more like an investment business. Parents invest money in the education of children expecting two types of return. First of all, they want their children to earn a decent living (a big fat salary, MNC offer letter, big fat dowry all these are included in the package) secondly they want their kids to take care of them. The argument is this – we gave up all our comforts for your upbringing now in our old age you have to pay us back. This argument is as old as the human race. It is my strong belief that nobody in this world should do something expecting some returns. Education thus became need based or need fulfilling exercise. The joy of learning is almost lost and the individual adheres to the strict structure of academic drudgery. We see around us

courses designed for the specific markets. As an English teacher, my duty is restricted to improving the communication ability of my students. It is even an anathema to call them as students. In the modernized world they are better known as ‘customers’ or ‘clients’.

And for me, I am not supposed to move away from my lesson plans and curriculum document.

Most of the problem that happens in today’s educational world happens due to lack of a holistic approach. The problem will continue to haunt the system as long as the system exists on a policy of parochial learning. By the term parochial learning I mean the lack of creativity and the passion towards learning.

When I was a student, I didn’t even think about the post-studies scenario. It was like living in the moment. The city of Chennai stood there with her arms wide open. It was up to me to take the lead and explore the city. I did that exactly with the help of some of my friends. I explored the libraries, book shops, and attended the exhibitions not to land up in a highly paid salary job. It was just for the sheer fun of it. The type of learning which I undertook kind of set the tone for my future studies. I also secretly fell in love with the city for its endless supply of books and CD’s.

Maybe one of the reasons why I wrote this blog is because of the crime and the mental punishment that happened yesterday. This week is examination week in my college. Clients are busy scribbling answers in the paper, invigilators running around, anti-malpractice squads with snake eyes, and me standing in the center laughing at this comedy of errors.

Oman Diary 2

2010-01-14T11:23:00.001+05:30

I have been in Oman for one and half years and have accumulated loads of images about this country. This is my second tryst with a Arab speaking community. Through this blog I am holding up a mirror to the Omani culture. I am not judgemental or critical . Here I share with my unknown readers my experience which gathered through my five senses. I have divided this blog into three parts

Teenage life:

Boys and girls lead a normal life here. They do have their limitations primarily because of lack of freedom. They are excessively dependent on mobile phones. The mobile companies are reaping benefits because of this. They offer MMS and Internet packages aimed at teenagers. This year four new mobile companies launched their services taking the total number of cellular operators to six. There is co-education only in the college level. Even there the interaction between boys and girls is very minimal. Religion plays a pivotal role in their lives. Most of the boys and girls spend their free time listening to the Holy Koran. Boys do venture out into the areas of Pop music, Rap and Reggae. Names like Akon and 50 cents are quite famous among boys. Boys also spend their time playing video games mainly Play Station. They like playing football games like Fifa 2009 and 2010. They take active participation in the football matches that take place in Oman and even in other Arab countries. It is a lovely sight to see them moving towards the stadium huddled together in a car or a pick up wearing their favourite team’s colour. They are also die hard fans of various European clubs like Barcelona, AC Milan and Manchester United.

Adult Life & Marriage:

When a boy or girl attains the marriageable age their parents will take the initiative to see their children married off. In most of the Muslim countries the boy has to pay a large sum of money and literally buy the girl. For a beautiful girl you have to pay more. Omani society consist of different tribes. The word tribe in the Omani context is different from the one we use in India. In India tribal means a person who lives in a forested area away from the so called civilized world. Some of the tribal names are al-balushi (from Baluchistan), al-mamari, al-maqbali,al ajmi. They practice community living and some of the towns are named after these tribal names. Marriages are often arranged within these tribes.Certain tribes get married only on Thursdays. Usually for marriage a tent is put up outside the house for the male members. Women spend their time doing henna. Women prefer western gowns for marriages. Meat and Chicken is served either separately or in the form of Biriyani.Food is served in a big bowl and three to five people eat from the same bowl. The groom’s car is decorated with flowers and festoons and his friends goes around the town in different cars in a procession. The procession is full of sound (honking horns) and fury signifying the blessed occasion.

Snapshots of Oman

2010-01-13T23:29:00.001+05:30

View Full Album

Coming soon

Cultural study of Oman

The Dead Mosquitoes in the Language Lab

2010-01-03T20:49:00.001+05:30

This morning as I was arranging the chairs and mouse pads in the language lab I noticed two dead mosquitoes. They were lying dead on the LAN server. When I removed their dead bodies I noticed that they their bodies were as light as feathers.

This sight triggered thoughts in my mind. First of all I asked myself – What caused their deaths? What made them die on the LAN server? Since I was the one who asked these questions I was forced to find the answers myself. I am sure that these mosquitoes entered during the day time hungrily buzzing and in search of human blood.

Day time the lab is filled with students and the smell of human sweat would have drawn these mosquitoes into the lab. By afternoon the lab is closed and the human presence disappears. I can imagine them flying around the lab. Their buzzing sound will be kind of drowned in the drone of the air conditioner. Their search will yield them no results. Their tiny stomach will yearn for a few drops of fresh human blood.

Round and round they will fly.

Hunger equation in them will multiply.

Their wings will lose its strength.

Their lungs will gasp for breath.

Eventually they will lose the battle. Some will fall on the ground, some will fall on the tables and desks, some will fall on places where human eyes cannot reach and some may fall on the LAN server.

Remembering 2009

2010-01-01T20:25:00.001+05:30

I have mixed feelings towards this year. I can't really say that my year was bad nor was it too good. The highlight event of the year will definitely be the leg fracture and the subsequent hospitalization. It was altogether a different experience. Another important issue will be the fall out with d&m. There were attempts to connect the former with the latter.I don't think it is an exercise worth doing. Maybe I will comment on that in this web space soon. This blog is about my journey through the year - 2009.

Movies: Movie watching in Sohar became a new experience with the opening of Sohar Cinema. We started with Aliens and Monsters and ended with Saw Le. Some of the best movies which we saw were - Taking of 123 Pelham, Pazzahassi Raja, and Loudspeaker. Some movies are meant to be watched in the year. For the other we have the TV and the endless supply of movies from my students. I enjoyed watching Scary movie 1&4,and Meet the Spartans.

Books: This year saw me searching for a book and finally buying it from the City Centre. The title of the book is - The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. I also got attracted to the area of audio books and made some quick purchases like ‘Dreams from My Father’ by Barack Obama and ‘Jude The Obscure’ by Thomas Hardy.

Events: I had a fall and was hospitalised for 5 days. I fell in the month of July and started walking in the month of December without any external aids. First time I underwent a major operation and experienced life in ICU. I used walker, crutches and finally elbow walking stick during the course of my recuperation. I still have the nail inside my leg and it will be removed only when I go home next year.

Xi and me: I purchased a new phone Sony Ericcson X1 which is a windows based mobile. It has opened up a new world to me. Most of the time I am hooked to the software which i have downloaded. Kinoma Media Play, Viigo, and lots and lots of software.

The tickets issued to heaven…2009 took some good people along with it. I personally felt the loss of Dr VJM, Lohitadass, Murali, John Updike, and MJ.

The year ahead for me: Only prayers that i should be guided by the good Lord in every step I take, every word I utter and every decision I make.

The Irish Ghost in Me

2009-12-15T23:37:00.001+05:30

Am I attempting a ghost story????

Kind of , I am sharing some ideas about mental my ghosts – sometimes they do occur in the form of ideas. Yesterday an idea stuck me that I should write something about my long term association with Ireland. The ‘association’ is only a psychological one bordering on obsession. This blog is an attempt to map my obsession with Ireland.

It started with W.B Yeats and his lovely poems which I read for my Master’s program. I did his poem ‘Second Coming’ and to substantiate my knowledge I did some background reading. I discovered two things about W.B Yeats,

He is a victim of unrequited love.
His fascination with Irish culture primarily the folklore.

The effect the poem had on me is so much that even today I can quote some lines from the poem,

‘Turning and turning in the ever widening gyre.

The falcon cannot hear the falconer’

Again Literature pulled me towards Ireland. This time it was Drama and the author was George Bernard Shaw. The affiliation started in my under graduate days when I read his ‘The Arms and the Man’. To a certain extent the credit also goes to my professor Mr. Philips who had a unique way of handling the class. Later on both in my student life and teaching career George Bernard Shaw was a dominating figure. As a student I read his ‘Pygmalion’ and as a teacher I saw the movie version of Pygmalion – ‘My Fair Lady’. My professors including VJM used to quote GBS to add the necessary punch to their class.

Another Irish author who made me get interested in Irish life was Frank McCourt. I have read his magnum opus titled Angela’s Ashes. As a teacher it was quite a rich experience to read his academic bio – Teacher Man.

My fascination for Ireland is not just restricted to literature. It also includes some popular culture elements like – U2 and the Corrs. U2 appealed to me for their eco-supportive songs and their great guitar work. Corrs for their sibling camaraderie and the fresh young voice especially of the sylvan beauty Andrea.

I don’t know much about Ireland. I have seen some flicks that were shot in Ireland. I have seen some wallpapers and screensavers. I have heard about the Catholic uprising and the IRA. The issues with Northern Ireland and how the UK is pampering the Irish people. Deep in my heart I do cherish a dream of visiting Ireland and inhaling the smell of the land deep in my nostrils.

Two movies /48 hrs

2009-11-30T19:17:00.002+05:30

Recently we watched two movies within a gap of 24 hrs. Both the movies were unique. First one was filled with natural and soft treatment of life. The second was a combination of special effects and race against time. In many ways both had some common ground between them. The movies which we saw were - Loudspeaker (Malayalam) and 2012 (English).

Loudspeaker portrayed the changing face (s)of mankind. The following juxtapositions find place in Loudspeaker- old/new, rural/urban,natural/artificial. The treatment surprisingly is not Loud. There is a human element in the movie and it carries a strong message about our changing lives. The central motif is similar to Rajesh Khanna starrers -Anand and Bawarachi and the copy of copy of all these – Kal ho na ho. Something akin to the saying - He came, he saw and he conquered. Watching a movie with some brilliant snapshots of Kerala is a true nostalgic act for a Gulf Malayalee. Jairaj injects a shot of humanism without the help of Doctor Preacher. In a way it was good to see Jairaj attempting a theme like this which is far removed from his usual misadventures with ‘saffronic’ themes. (Paitherekam, Deshadanam). Even though Mammoty looks different as the Loud Mike, he lacks a tinge of originality.We felt that he was too glamorous for the role of a ‘farmer/kidney donor from the hills’. Jagathy is wasted with an insignificant character of the apartment secretary . We had heard numerous complaints about the sync technique used ( first time in Malayalam) in the movie but our movie watching experience was complaint free.

2012 is about the end of the world. We all know that the world will end soon and the bad/mad rush has already begun. Copenhagen promoting the theme of hope is one way of creating awareness about the dying earth. ( Sign the petition and become a citizen at www.hopenhagen.com) The world as we know will face death due to either environmental issues, terrorism or ~~an alien attack~~) Mayans predicted it long back and Indians noticed it and as usual Americans saves the world ( or at least the world of the rich) with the help of hard working China men. A movie filled with American jingoism and propaganda, 2012 is just like Independence Day. The biblical ark is shown in a new avatar. In many ways the movie attempts to yoke Mayan calender with the biblical ark.

The Language of Violence

2009-11-24T11:13:00.001+05:30

Google has entered into a partnership with leading publication houses to bring the best from the world of words. i was browsing the titles this morning and i came across a book titled ‘The Violence of Language’. the title made me think about the violent ways of using language. I took some time to mull over the topic and found that it will be worthy of a blog. The fact that today violence is a common thing makes the topic more topical. The topic deals only with the verbal use of language. words which are un- parliamentary may be the starting point. every human being has got a breaking point. If he/she is pushed beyond a certain point then he will break. One of the way’s through which he regains balance is by uttering some words which are like bullets and will hit the target bull’s eye. The language becomes violent.

Cursing,Swearing are all instances were language can get really violent. Studies are being conducted into the violent nature of human communication. What are the effects of bad words on the listener? How does human brain process these words?. Answers will be found soon. Most of the time the powerful language we use is a result of anger and frustration. In these modern times you can see people getting more complex and hard hearted. The use of violent language is becoming more intense and common.

The self-development guru’s (Robin Sharma, Deepak Chopra) are of the opinion that violent words always carry a negative field of energy and that will vitiate the ambience. this is one area which they are minting money. to make the post-post modern beings control their anger and practice the golden rule of silence. as a teacher i sometimes do get angry in the class, but experience has taught me that anger in a classroom is utterly useless. When i browsed the net i even came up with the idea of non-violent communication.

In, developing countries like India, the worst forms of violent communication is used against women and children. teachers against students, parents against children, husband against wife… the list goes on. Money, cultural issues, and lack of education are some of the breeding grounds for these types of communication.

Oman Diary - Part One

2009-11-12T16:02:00.001+05:30

This is our second year in Oman. Last year we never had the inclination to explore Oman. This year we thought we will do a bit of exploration so that we will discover Oman. We decided to explore the ‘Real Oman’ far away from the hustle bustle of the Sohar life. So we chose a destination that is 70 kms away from Sohar - Wadi Hibi. Surrounded by mountains the village of Hibi is peaceful and has some of the best picturesque places.

There are some structures which our driver cum guide Saed told us were old houses.They are made of perfectly shaped stones and plastered with mud. Omanis lived in these houses maybe some 20 years back. Now they remain as examples of the past. the houses were constructed in such a way that the inhabitants were protected from wind and other adverse weather conditions. It had sub terranean passages and air ducts for ventilation. The modern houses co-exist with these ancient structures, complete with air conditioners and satellite TV.

This was the taxi which took us on this journey. Behind you can see the mountains and a Masjid. People living in Hibi are usually go to sleep late and they get up late. Most of them are farmers and their pace of life is slow and relaxed. We met some of them and they invited us to eat breakfast with them. The time was 10:30 am. Hibi like any other village is a close knit society. People know each other and they share a sense of camaraderie. Maybe it is effect of nature on the minds of human beings. People are healthy and active. we met an old man whose age was 80+, walking around with the agility of an 30+ man.

( to be continued)

Oman Diary – Coming Soon

2009-10-30T12:34:00.001+05:30

FIVE DAYS BEFORE EID

2009-10-30T12:30:00.001+05:30

In this blog, I have chronicled our life in Sohar. the chronicle begins with the day we visited Lulu and ends with the day Oman celebrated Id. I was still using crutches and walker. 5 days of our life were recorded in X1 Office Word and later on complied together for this blog.

17-09-09

I decided to chronicle the daily events of my life. After a gap of 5 days I finally ventured out to the shopping area. I didn't get out of the car; I sat inside and watched the crowd and the activities. There were lots of things to watch. Families flocking towards Lulu to do Ramadan shopping. Shincy went inside to buy things for the household. Me and Saed sat and watched the world moving by. It was a boring thing to do, but I was helpless. One thing I was preoccupied with was watching different types of cars - from Toyota to Audi. It was an interesting exercise especially after the prolonged stay at home. Today Anjali shifted to a new flat somewhere near Indian school. We never had a hand in glove existence but she leaves behind a miniscule sense of emptiness.

18-09-09

Sheetal's visit. After a year long time some relatives visited our home. Sheetal, Rakesh, Ryan and their friend Shony and family. They were enroute to Muscat and they took a pit stop here. We had prepared food and a Kerala delicacy called pazham porichuthu. We tried our best to make them comfortable. They were bit surprised by our 'overflowing hospitality'. After our guests left us, me and Shincy were occupied with updating our Orkut profile. We added some new photos into our albums and created some new albums.

19-09-09

Today was an uneventful day. Shincy washed lots of clothes and she cooked lunch. For dinner we plan to eat some fruits and the local bread called khoobs. Did multiviewing of three Malayalam movies. Not even one was riveting. Six more days for the college to reopen. Time to relax and make the right moves. After taking bath in the evening I started watching the movie - Ruins in HBO. After sometime Shine also joined me. We were bit shaken by the man eating creeper plants. We found redemption through Shrek 3 and slept.

20-09-09

The day was quite uneventful because we got up late. We had some brunch watching the repeat telecast of Ruins. We had some discussion over the creepy situation especially the carnivorous creepers. The day passed away just like. I played for sometime and Uma aunty came in that time to exchange some pleasantries. After prayer and supper we sat watching TV and got hooked to this Malayalam movie - Mattoral (another person) starring Karamana, Mammoty, Urvasi and Seema. The movie explored marital bonds in bold way. We slept like two babies after watching that. Time was 3:00 am.

21-09-09

Today is Eid. Saed came in the morning to give Omani bread and beef stew. After that Mohammed came with chicken rice, sweet and beef fry. We didn't cook anything. As usual got up very late. Evening Uma aunty invited us to join them for a ride. It was a blessing for both of us since we could take in some fresh air. Shincy did some essential shopping. Our Tamil neighbours paid a visit for the first time.

Dr. V. J. Mathew – An Obituary

2009-10-15T23:26:00.002+05:30

A few days back Dr V. J passed away. A name that was quite popular in Loyola college, Chennai, for 25 years. He retired from Loyola as the HOD of the English Department and became the co-ordinator of the Self-financed English Department. Then after two years of service he took up the post of Principal of Mar Gregorias College, Chennai. He was involved with AIMS personality development program developed by Sunny Tharappan. He was an avid reader. He liked to walk and talk. He was an excellent teacher. He was a prolific orator.He was my teacher. He made me – He made me discover the student within me. He made me discover the writer in me. He made me discover the teacher in me, He made me to discover the reader in me, He made me to discover the rebel within me. Sir, I will miss you like anything, I love you and may your soul rest in peace.

Eleven years back, me and my father stood outside the English Department of Loyola college. We were there waiting for the HOD to get take the entrance exam for admission into the Master’s program. The office assistant, Stella, made us sit and asked us to wait. After some minutes Dr VJ walked into the room. He was wearing a white corduroy and a printed shirt with large collars. He had a silver watch on his wrist and he was wearing classes. He gave me the question paper and asked me to sit in one corner and write. The next day I became a Loyalite. the day also marked my association with Dr. VJ. In our time table he was known as VJM. He taught us PD in the first semester. Then Chaucer, Phonetics, and British poetry in the consecutive semesters . His classes were a heady mixture of info and entertainment. He had his own unique style of handling English Literature. He was also known for his VJ jokes which used to appear in the department newsletter. Sample this:

Son: Dad, which one is more intoxicating? whisky or brandy

Father: Neither of them, it is Lewinsky…

His classes were never missed and I used to worship him from a distance. We both had a commonality in our names. He was targeted many times for his Malayali roots. I remember that even I was targeted for possessing the same name. Sir,I am so proud that i have your name. It was through him that I received a letter for my first job which i didn’t take up. the strange is that he is the one who informed me about the opportunity in Nepal and he is the one who dissuaded me from going there. I am sure that he was watching me from a distance maybe he didn’t want to openly show his concern for me fearing a local backlash.

After Masters I joined MCC for my M.Phil and even that time I remember the letter of reference that he had given to Prof. Vishnu Bhatt. It was like our bond was extending even beyond the 100 acre Loyola campus. When I got through my UGC exam I had applied for the post in Loyola and even there, he were present as the HOD of the newly formed SFS English department. I thus became a teacher with his blessings. Sir, I am so happy and i feel blessed that I started my career with you. I remember my first class and how you asked me about the experience after the class. I was amused by the way he used to gel with the young and the old alike.Che, Sugnathi and me were the Young Turks and Prof Arockia Dass and Jeyadoss - the old army. Che and me had numerous discussions with him in the canteen. He was specially interested in the author Fritjof Capra and his book – The Tao of Physics. Che and me, one day took him to watch the movie – A Beautiful Mind. He was so excited about the event. I remember how tensed he was when his brand new Santro hit a tree and had a dent. he was upset for some days. Dr VJ used to be upset for even small things. Maybe he was a sensitive being ( Just like me)

Once i joined MCC as a teacher, I used to visit him at home. We used to go for short walks which sometimes ended near the church. He used to talk about his daughter who got settled in the US and how he loved her. He told me in a funny how she forced him to watch movies related to American style wedding when he visited her for the marriage.His second daughter was more like him – especially when it came to reading. I had befriended many books through him during these home visits. Da Vinci Code was one among them.

I am missing a good friend, a great teacher and moreover a good human being… and i know that i am not the only one…

the weekend post

2009-10-08T13:25:00.001+05:30

hoolala
just checking my new window

What’s in a Name?

2009-10-08T00:25:00.001+05:30

The inspiration behind this blog came from the noise that my female colleagues create in the office room. They are both away from their homes and they have this special knack to refer to their kids and spouse using different names. Some words are charged and may cause some shock waves in the listener's heart. Anyway this made me think about this whole idea of naming people. Being a student of literature it will be easy for me to talk about the signifier/signified/the significant other and the act of labelling. But I feel there is more to it.

Naming is an act of description. In the Indian context a child is born with different names. His face will give him a name. His nose will give him a name. His smile will bestow a name on him. His gait will give him a name. The planetary influences will give him a name. The list is really endless. Two names will remain with him/her forever i.e. Pet name and his official name. Some of the common pet names found in India are - chintu, chikku, unni, and mani. Even here the list is endless. The official name is the name is the one found in your educational certificates and official documents like passport. This name is chosen with much care and deliberation. Usually the letters from the parental names are combined to make the name. Parents will spend many sleepless nights making these names. Sometimes they do get some lovely names but most often they don’t. Sometimes names of dead ancestors or family names are also added to main name. So a typical Indian name will have a First name, a Middle name and a Surname. Apart from this the name will also carry initials.

Being a Christian I got three names with me. One is my pet name (Kunjumon) which is still the name with which my parents and relatives address me. The official name is Premjith Mathew. I shortened that name into Prem. Now my-in-laws refer to me as Prem. In the church records I am known Joseph. I did have some nicknames with me – the one which I still remember is Valdo. Even my spectacles earned me a name – Kannadi. But these days I have acquired a new name- Baby face.

My name official name is bit strange and different from others. Premjith – it looks like a North Indian name. I still don’t know how my parents managed to conjure up this name.

Whenever I watch movies depicting the Red Indians in USA. I am fascinated by their names. In movies like Hidalgo, Spirit – The Stallion of the Cimarron, Dancing with the Wolves and Apocalypto we can learn a lot about the Red Indian life style and their act of naming. The Red Indian names are usually lengthy and explain a lot about one main characteristic trait of the individual. Their names will be like this – Eagle of the Sun, One who yawns, He who combs, One that walks on four claws, He makes noise. Their names are really interesting but I doubt whether they really call themselves like this today.

In India, I feel nothing is left without a name. Vehicles are named, animals are named and even trees are named. Indian cinema industry to a certain extent thrives on this naming business. The movie names are only chosen after astrological consultations. It is quite common for celebrities to change their names according to the numerological patterns so that it will bring good luck and charm.

the new window for my words

2009-10-07T22:48:00.001+05:30

this is again a new experience
long way to go
good luck to myself

My Left Leg - Inside Out

2009-09-23T18:44:00.001+05:30

Best Snaps from Sony Cam

2009-09-22T17:25:00.003+05:30

My Days in Loho

2009-09-22T17:19:00.001+05:30

LOHO stands for Loyola hostel. To be a complete slave of Loyola you should live in the hostel. If the college was a sub jail then Loho was a central prison.

My Loho experience was a mixture of both freedom and restrictions. Being PG students me and my friends never was taken too seriously. We were a minority who enjoyed a certain amount of special rights.

This blog is about my life in LOHO. It is exactly ten years now. I joined the hostel in 1998 and left it in 2000. To get academic admission in Loyola College is much easier when compared to act of entering the hostel. Dad tried his best bringing out all known methods of persuasion to get me a room in the hostel. Even today he talks with an adventurous spirit about this Loho admission episode. I had to stay outside in a hotel till I got my Loho berth. If I remember correctly the name of the hotel was – Vishram. It was located near the central station in wall tax road. So every day I ate from hotel, traveled by suburban train and saw the city a lot. If I am to narrate my outside Loho experiences then I will have to add a sub blog to this main blog.

With Dad’s help I finally kept my feet inside a Loho room. My room number was 417 which was in the 14^th block which was near the railway line. Initial days were spend setting up the room. Frequent visits to Choolaimedu (Choolz) were made. Dad went back leaving me to explore the world known as Loho. Dad had introduced me to some ‘mallu’ students and advised me to stick with them. Most of them were seniors. Some were priests. There was nothing exciting about these ‘mallu’ friends. They were highly biased and they thought that the ‘other’ (locals) were nothing but a bunch of ‘cinema crazy buffoons’. I had two other friends – Pallavan and Sankar. Pallavan was my classmate and Sankar was his Be.d mate. I found these two quite different from what I had heard from the ‘mallu’ circle. This and many other reasons made me quit the M Circle who were growing self-centered and quarrelsome day by day. One more friend who joined our gang was Sundar. We four – (Pallavan, Sankar, Prem, and Sundar) were always found together. We also had two visiting members – Sundaramoorthy and Br Rufus. Both were always busy or at least they feigned that they were. Anyway it was a joy to have them with us especially Br Rufus who was also an assistant warden and member of the Jesuit community who ran Loyola. When he was round we used to enjoy special rights in the mess like getting hot Dosas and some extra eggs like that. He was quite popular in the campus as he was in charge of the choir and campus ministry service. it was true that I was little jealous at Br Rufus SJ.

back to gayl-ash-shibool

2009-09-09T15:26:00.000+05:30

after 45 days of resident experience I am back in sohar. looking forward to an interesting academic year.

My State of Stillness

2009-08-06T17:42:00.001+05:30

I thought about it for a great deal. Why this strange pause in my life. Suddenly things have come to a standstill. I feel two factors are quite new to me. The first one is- restricted mobility and the second one is the dependence on other's for even the basic human activities. It is not just me who thought and felt seriously about the misfortune but there was also my mother. She blamed it on the evil eye. She even blamed me for flaunting my material possessions including x1 before the world. Now the last line in this line of thought is - things have happened with some divine purpose. My mind strongly suggests that all events happening in my life has got an undying connection with my creator. He sees it all whether it is good or bad. As Philip Yancey summarizes it in his thought triggering book “Where is God When it Hurts”? Human beings tend to criticize the creator for the painful life not really grasping the plan behind it. They are so blinded by the pain factor that they seldom see or think beyond the usual. Most of them are so angry with Him that they spend time cursing and denying Him. It is as if their conscious/reasoning mind is clouded by hatred and a tint of amount of self-denial. To a certain extent it is difficult for people to accept pain and sadness.
Calamity destroys the perfect balance in their lives. It takes lots of time to get back the balance.

My own state of stillness which was due to a fall and fractured leg created lots of unpleasant ripples among my near and dear ones. The central figure
In this whole drama is myself. I am the reason behind my own fall and I am the one who underwent the operation for the insertion of steel nail. Since I am the reason for creating these unpleasant ripples in the family circle I should be the one who should take the necessary steps to mitigate the after effects. I prepared myself with the help of these thoughts

1. It is God’s plan that I lie in a bed for some time. He is either punishing me or testing me. I am happy both the ways. His plan for me will always be good.
2. I am so blessed that I have a fracture only in my left leg. Doctor told me that it is one of the less dangerous fractures that can happen.
3. I remember the scenes in the ICU where I lived for 2 nights. Especially the face of that young boy who was in a state of coma. Tubes running through every hole in his body. He has been lying like that for more than 1 month. God save him and console his family members.
4. I thought about the worst situation that can happen to me and how will I live if something like that happens.
5. God gave me a chance to rediscover the boon of marital bond. She was my strength and support all these days. The person who was gifted to me on Oct 2008.

DEMOCRACY - an essay worth blogging

2009-07-07T11:03:00.005+05:30

Democracy’s failing light - (Outlook Mag July 13)
Arundhati Roy

Is democracy a hit with humans because it mirrors our myopia?

While we’re still arguing about whether there’s life after death, can we add another question to the cart? Is there life after democracy? What sort of life will it be? By democracy I don’t mean democracy as an ideal or an aspiration. I mean the working model: Western democracy, and its variants, such as they are.

So, is there life after democracy?

Attempts to answer this question often turn into a comparison of different systems of governance, and end with a somewhere prickly, comabative defense of democracy. Its flawed, we say. It isn’t perfect, but it’s better than everything else that’s an offer. Inevitably someone in the room will say. “Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia…is that what you would prefer?

Whether democracy should be the utopia that all developing societies aspire to is a separate question altogether (I think it should. The early idealistic phase can be quite heady) the question about life after democracy is addressed to those of us who already live in democracies or in countries that pretend to be democracies. It isn’t meant to suggest that we lapse into older, discredited models of totalitarian or authoritarian governance. It’s meant to suggest that the system of representative democracy – too much representation, too little democracy – needs some structural adjustment.

The question here really is what have we done to democracy? What have we turned it into? What happens once democracy has been used up? When it has been hallowed out and emptied of meaning? What happens when each of its institution has metastasized into something dangerous? What happens now that democracy and the Free market have fused into a single predatory organism with a thin constricted imagination that revolves almost entirely around the idea of maximizing the profit? Is it possible to reverse this process? Can something that has mutated go back into what ii used to be?

What we need today for the sake if the survival of this planet is long term vision. Can governments whose very survival depends on immediate, extractive, short term gain provide this? Could it be that democracy, the sacred answer to our short-term hopes and prayers, the protector of our individual freedoms and nurturer of our avaricious dreams, will turn out to be the endgame for the human race? Could it be that democracy is such a hit with modern humans precisely because it mirrors our greatest folly – our nearsteadfastness? Our inability to live entirely in the present (like most animals do) combined with our inability to see very far into the future makes us strange in-between creatures, neither beast nor prophet. Our amazing intelligence seems to have outstripped our instinct for survival. We plunder the earth hoping that accumulating material surplus will make up for the profound, unfathomable thing that we have lost.

It would be conceit to pretend that the essays in this book provide answers to any of these questions. They only demonstrate, in some detail, the fact that it looks as though the beacon could be failing and the democracy can perhaps no longer be relied upon to deliver the justice and stability we once dreamed it would. All the essays were written as urgent public interventions at critical moments in India during the state-backed genocide of Muslims in Gujarat, just before the date set for the hanging of Mohammed Afzal, the accused in the December 13, 2001, Parliament attack; during US President George Bush’s visit to India; during the mass uprising in Kashmir in the summer of 2008; after the November 26, 2008, Mumbai attacks. Often they were not just response to events; they were responses to the responses.

Though many of them were written in anger, at moments when keeping quiet became harder than saying something, the essays do have a common thread. They’re not about unfortunate anomalies or aberration in the democratic process. They’re about the consequences of and the corollaries to democracy; they’re about the fire in the ducts. I should also say that they do not provide a panoramic overview. They’re a detailed under view of specific events that I hoped would reveal some of the ways in which democracy is practiced in the world’s largest democracy. (or the world’s largest ‘demon-crazy’, as a Kashmiri protestor on the streets of Srinagar once put it. His placard said: ‘Democracy without Justice = Demon Crazy’)

As a writer, a fiction writer, I have often wondered whether the attempt to always be precise, to try and get it all factually right somehow reduces the epic scale of what is really going on. Does it eventually mask a larger truth? I worry that I am following myself to be railroaded into offering prosaic, factual precision when maybe what we need is a feral howl or the transformative power and real precision of poetry. Some thing about the cunning Brahminical, intricate, bureaucratic, file bound, apply through proper channel’ nature of governance and subjugation in India seems to have made a clerk out of me.

Art Lives Artist Dies - Obituary- MJ and Lohitadaas

2009-07-03T13:36:00.006+05:30

As I write this blog the question that I am asking myself at this moment is this -What is the connection between MJ and my life. It was in 1990's that I started liking him. The good old days at home watching the 2 hour free MTV broadcast in DD Metro. That was the time when his History album came out and the song that shook me was – The Earth Song. It had a noble cause. When I became a teacher I used his 'We are the World' and 'Heal the World' in my theatrical productions and class room presentations. Through his music he sensitized the world about poverty, violence and environment.

Lohitadaas captured my attention through Mrigaya. I even wrote an article about the script. At that time I was interested in the area of cultural studies and film studies. My article was based on the topic of the hunter and the hunted. How cleverly Lohi used the universal motif in the movie even reversing it at the end when the hunter becomes the hunted. Even as an actor I liked him in Udyananu Tharam. In the movie his conversation style was filled with honesty and simplicity.
The artists are gone. But the art remains. MJ had a load of allegations against him. Lohi's life was also riddled with some hot rumors. Both were addicted to drugs and alcohol. As a fan of both these artists, I have to admit the fact that it is easy to identify with the art than the artist.

The artist sacrifices his life so that his art will live forever.

Long live the art

Let the artist rest in peace

First blog

2009-07-03T12:43:00.002+05:30

Wow

First blog posted from x1

Way to go.......

The Taking of Pelham 123

2009-06-29T09:32:00.003+05:30

I befriended this movie when I heard about the sudden demise of John Travolta's teenage son which resulted in John not attending the promos of the movie. The movie which is a remake of the 1973 flick of the same name strikes a special chord with the audience right from the first scene. Denzel is shown seated in his Console in the New York Subway control centre. A calm figure as opposed to the would be hijackers who are shown entering the tube station to capture Pelham 123 with disturbed faces. The movie moves forward based on the conversation between Travolta and Denzel Washington. They talk about life, death and fate. Through these conversations they both discover each other and they sense kind of similarity in their life patterns. They hate the system and they want to have their revenge. Denzel is already is charged with charges of bribe.

It was a treat watching Travolta and Denzel on the screen. Their acting chemistry is great between them.

My Outlook

2009-06-18T20:00:00.004+05:30

The most important thing in life is to be calm and composed. Most of the time we are in a hurry and we tend to forget the basics of life. When we are calm we tend to listen to more voices not just from outside but even from inside. When we are engaged in the rat race called life, then we will miss upon the beauty of life. It is always better to live breathing the tranquillity of life than inhaling the poisoning fumes of restlessness. I am reminded about a poem which I taught in MCC. All that I remember is that the poem deals with the concept of 'rest'. God bestowed all types of gifts except 'rest'. He wanted mankind to turn towards Him for getting rest. The advancements that mankind is making today can be compared to the 'antics of a madman’. The comforts and luxurious life style that defines the modern life is just a flash in the pan. There is little or no time to halt and think about the consequences of the actions. Some of us do try to make a difference. Good thing.

There is only one little snag about that-we are too conscious about the act itself.

“With a man it is otherwise. /Heroisms on horseback,/Outstripping his desk-diary at a broad desk,/Carving at a tiny ivory ornament/For years: his act worships itself - while for him,/Though he bends to be bent in the prayer, how loud and/above what/Furious spaces of fire do the distracting devils/Orgy and hosanna, under what wilderness /Of black silent waters weep.”

(Thrushes by Ted Hughes)

Symbol 3 in Delhi 6

2009-06-12T13:51:00.001+05:30

Last night we watched Delhi 6. It took almost 2 months for the original print to reach here. It took more than 3 years for Rakesh Om Mehara to make a movie after RDB. First, we fell in love with the songs (that was two months back) especially ‘Masakali’. Then Dish TV provided free 5 minute preview of the movie in the MOD mode. It was enough to make us impatient and restless until we could get the copy from our favourite CD shop in Lulu.

The movie can be divided based on the three symbols used. The first one is the mad man with the mirror. He goes around thrusting the mirror on each one’s face. At the end Roshan ( AB) does the same. Tired of the scorching heat of the communal fire, he asks the both the parties to have a look at themselves.The concept of looking within is hinted at in a vey subtle way. When the mirror is broken by the communally blind mob, the question that creeps into our mind is – What is the use of a mirror to a blind society.

Then we have the much talked about dove – Masakali. The dove became something like the Zoozoo characters in the Vodafone ad. It represents everything that a white bird is supposed to represent – Purity/Freedom. The beauty of Delhi 6 is that the Ram Prakash Mehara has connected the bird with the character Bittu ( SK). She hates to get tied up like Masakali. She is yearning for an exit from her father played brilliantly by Om Puri. she also represents the new face of India and it is also interesting that she is the pivotal figure around which the lovely Masakali song revolves. The dove is a contrast to the Black/Dark Monkey man.

The third and most powerful symbol in the movie is the monkey man whose antics runs throughout the movie. Media is after the monkey man. Police is after the monkey man. BUT

The monkey man remains elusive. Nobody till the end realises that the dark/black monkey is actually living inside the human mind. The attempts to make the monkey man a Muslim and a Hindu is quite funny.

Responsible Tourism – An Introduction

2009-06-11T16:22:00.001+05:30

There is an African proverb which says, ‘Treat your guest as a guest for two days - then on the third day give him a hoe’. This proverb achieves greater significance when applied in the context of the topic which I have selected for my project work – ‘Relevance of Responsible Tourism in Kerala’. The concept of Tourism has come out of the happy-go-lucky days and is all set to move towards a more serious participative, issue based model. In simpler terms the guest cannot remain as a guest for a long time. Active participation is demanded from him to make his stay and the well being of others a success.

This project explores the concept of tourism in the light of the newly developed practice which is termed as responsible tourism. The project gains much relevance when done against the backdrop of Kerala – an exotic destination much sought after by both national and international tourists. The need for a study like this will create awareness about the concept of responsible tourism and will certainly help in creating a better eco-sphere where the natural bounties are preserved for the use of generations to come.

Responsible tourism and sustainable tourism have an identical goal, that of sustainable development. The issues that are taken into consideration in both responsible tourism are environmental integrity, social justice and maximising local economic benefit. In responsible tourism individuals, organisations and businesses are asked to take responsibility for their actions and the impacts of their actions. The need for responsible tourism stems from the fact that very little progress has been made on realising sustainable tourism since the Earth Summit in Rio. The emphasis on the word ‘responsibility’ in responsible tourism means that everyone involved in tourism – Government, product owners ,transport owners, community services, NGO’s, tourists ,local communities, industry associations are responsible for achieving the goals of responsible tourism.

The 2002 Cape Town declaration on responsible tourism in destinations defines it as a type of eco-tourism which minimises negative, environmental and social impacts. It should generate greater economic benefits for local people and enhances the well being of host communities. It must make positive contributions to the conservation of natural and cultural heritage embracing diversity. Responsible tourism is mainly conceived with three kinds of responsibilities which are termed as the ‘triple bottom-line’ – economic responsibility, social responsibility and environmental Responsibility. Responsible tourism strives to be culturally sensitive, to encourage respect between tourists and hosts and to build local pride and confidence. Tourism industries in South Africa, the United Kingdom, United States, the Gambia, India, and Sri Lanka are already practicing Responsible tourism and this list is growing. Recognising the global significance of Responsible Tourism World Travel Market one of the world’s largest travel exhibitions had created World Responsible Tourism day to be celebrated annually on November 12. World Responsible Tourism Day is endorsed by the World Tourism Organisation and World Travel and Tourism Council.

There are different factors that prompt the tourism industry to explore the possibilities of practicing responsible tourism. Some of the main factors are the concern about global warming, destruction of the environment, erosion of cultures and lifestyles and the issue of poverty. The number of initiatives aimed at saving some part of the environment, or improving the living conditions is increasing day by day. To a certain extent this awareness has affected the mindset of the people especially the tourists. They have become keener in getting maximum value for the money they invest in their annual holidays. A significant and growing number of tourists are looking for a better experience, a better quality product. They are looking for experiences which enable them to get closer to the ‘real’ living culture of countries and to experience the diverse and natural and cultural heritage. For example in India, after the success of the movie Slumdog Millionaire, an increasing number of westerners are shunning the beaches of Goa and palaces of Rajasthan. There is an increasing demand to see the slum life in Mumbai and other cities. This type of tourism goes by the name of slum tourism or poverty tourism. Slum tourism is promoted by travel companies to reduce poverty and enable local people to participate more effectively in tourism development.

Today there is an increased awareness in the tourism industry with regards to preservation of natural resources especially water. Some of the steps that are being widely practiced to encourage travellers to be economical with their use of water in areas where there is a scarcity and to support local initiatives to improve access for poor to water.

My new Xperience

2009-06-10T09:12:00.001+05:30

James Bond (Daniel Craig) uses the brand in both the Bond movies. My Principal showed it to me. A thought that struck me that the Apple I Phone is just a fancy item. I felt the Paulo Coelho’s SIGNS floating around me. I finally inched towards the mobile shop to own the cute and fascinating X1. X1- is the tech-pet name of Sony Ericsson Windows based pocket PC. It is equipped with a 3.2 megapixel camera with auto focus and flash. It has got Mobile Office ( Word,Excel,PowerPoint) and an excellent connection zone ( Bluetooth,WLAN,Wi Fi and GPS) The phone can be configured for sending and receiving emails through Microsoft Object Push Service. I can stay online through Gmail, Windows Live messenger and Facebook. It has got a Opera Mini browser. another feature that is worth mentioning are the Panels .Now any you own gadget should become part of our life and it all depends on how we use it to suit our personal needs. Here are some of the ways that i use my X1

CNN panel to read news (Sports/Entertainment/Current Affairs)
Mobipocket reader to read EBooks ( the auto scroll function is amazing)
To check my mails and listen to music and sometimes watch movies
To put reminders for my work related tasks.
To browse the net.
To know the weather in the places that matter to me.
To play games or to watch other play games
To get the meaning of words
To know my location in the world using Google maps

Necks and Shoulders

2009-06-09T09:19:00.000+05:30

Photo taken on 1-06-09
Place – Oman oil gas station – Sohar,Oman

Madhavi,Kamala,Suraiyya

2009-06-01T09:18:00.001+05:30

She passed away yesterday. The writer in her died some years ago. The Hindu in her died before that. The traces of a Malayali disappeared in her even before that.she had the penchant for changing identities. If a name or a religion can give you a different identity she yearned for it. The above mentioned labels are nothing when compared to the list below. English writer/ political activist/ poet/mystic/liberated soul…

May her soul???? rest in peace

Some Tips to Study Abroad

2009-05-25T10:02:00.001+05:30

Let me confess to the fact that I am not an expert in this field. My only experience lies in the fact that I have tried (still trying) for getting admission in a foreign university for my doctoral program. Hope my little experience will be of some use to you and will assist you in getting admitted in a reputed university.

There are two basic rules that matters if you want to study outside India:

If you have somebody in the target country (not a friend preferably a blood relation) then the task becomes much easier.
Money is also important factor in studying abroad.

The first thing I did was to narrow down my search to two countries – UK, Australia. I got the list of best 100 universities/colleges in UK and Australia to make my search more focussed. Once this is decided it is easy to proceed with your search for a College or University.

This is can be done in three ways:

1) Through laborious browsing of the Web.

2) Meeting officials at British council and IDB (Australia).

3) The best and the expensive option is to register yourself with some reputed educational consultancies (There are many consultancies’ in Chennai and Bangalore) some of the famous ones are

· Study Abroad

· Edwise

· Chopra’s.

Please note that they may charge you for the services but they will help you a lot. When you approach them be clear about your future plans. They are pukka business people. It is better to do some research of your own before approaching them. Writing a SOP (Statement of Purpose) is also an important step in getting admission in a foreign university.

I did explore the possibility of getting a scholarship for funding my studies. You may get more information regarding scholarships from British Council and IDB. (Chevening Scholarships and Commonwealth Scholarships)

Some of the universities that gave a favourable response to my queries were:

1) La Trobe university – Melbourne

2) University of Southampton - UK

3) University of Adelaide - Australia

4) University of Manchester - UK

5) University of New Castle – Australia

You can also extent your research to get some info about Academy City in Dubai. Most of the foreign and some of the Indian universities have opened their shops in Dubai.

Hope the above information will help you in your re-search.

All the best

Ye college hai meri jaan…

2009-05-24T14:23:00.000+05:30

6:45 am – 2:00 pm – VTC – Shinas

I think this is the first time that I have given a Hindi title to a blog. The reason – I felt that this will suit the contents. There is a need to make the title reflect the reality. At this point I have a question to myself. Can money cover the hard academic realties that surrounds me? Maybe my dear and near ones thinks it can.

My academic day starts at 7:30 am. I usually is engaged till 10:30am. Here the class is divided into 45 minutes hours. so I handle one hour and thirty minutes. The first session is with RAC department and the second one is with Mechatronics. The first group is a nightmare on the elm street and the second group is a midsummer night’s dream. Once the classes are over, I eat my breakfast that will be around 10:30 am.

To give a better picture about my classes – it is less of TTT and more of STT. even i was stunned by these letters in the beginning of the academic year. Later on i discovered that TTT stood for TEACHER TALK TIME and STT stood for STUDENT TALK TIME. my classroom work is a combination of PPT’s, textbooks and sometimes even the Internet.

Morning Roadie

2009-05-23T10:20:00.001+05:30

6:00 am – 6:45 am/ Sohar – Shinas

Early morning taxi ride is not a bad idea. The taxi comes at 5:55am. I will be the first one to get in. The ‘it’ will enter after some considerable time. That time (3-5 minutes) is enough for Abdu to get all worked up. He sometimes wakes up all the inmates of the expat block by honking his horn. He is quite impatient like the Airtel kids. We start at 6am. The roads will be pretty much deserted. When we reach Lulu roundabout I will give a missed call to HDD.’it’ will make the backseat of the car a bed and will be in deep sleep. It takes 10 minutes from Gayl-Ash-Shibool to Falaj where HHD resides. On the way, I usually check out whether the S car is ahead of us. I know that even Abdu is interested in knowing the GPS of the S car. Sometimes we get a chance to engage in a NFS with the S car. I also have the habit of looking at the ad-banners at Safeer Mall and the checking out the construction progress of the new Centerpoint near Safeer roundabout. HHD will be waiting near her flat. ‘It’ n me wishes her good morning. She responds to both of us. Abdu will now hit the Dubai road without wasting any time. HDD takes out the Green, red, white prayer books and will begin her spiritual journey. ‘It’ will go back to her sleep and I will sit in the front looking at the road ahead.From Falaj to Liwa is again another ten minutes. We reach Liwa around 6:20. Liwa roundabout is something which fascinates me. I used to see one of my student standing there waiting for the taxi. His name is also Abdu. I have heard from his friends that he is living in a faraway place surrounded by mountains. Anyway he is a punctual student.

Most of the days the journey is eventless. Certain days we engage in a conversation but those days are few. Each one will be pre-occupied by some thought or the other. If he is in good mood Abdu will joke with me. He likes to listen to the Holy Koran and he seeks my help to fine tune the Abu Dhabi FM station on the radio.

We do see some police cars in the morning and Abdu will ask me to wear the seat belt. Abdu’s normal speed is 120. One he spots the S car then he is pushes it to 140. Anyway he has to reduce his speed when he sees the Speed Radars. Police cars are also seen at accident sites. During rainy season police monitor the Wadi’s and gives the necessary information regarding the water level.

ONE DAY IN MY LIFE

2009-05-22T15:42:00.001+05:30

5:00 – 6:00 am/ Gayl-ash-shibool/ Sohar, Oman

The beginning of my day depends a lot on how the previous night ended. Especially if my sleep was a disturbed one then my morning hour will be without energy. I get up from my bed at 5am listening to the mobile phone alarm. I snooze the alarm two times. Each snooze is for 9 minutes. So I leave the comfort of my bed around 5:20am. I switch on the bathroom lights before entering the bathroom and I approach the commode and sit there waiting for the XXXXX to come out. Once that is done, I XXXXXXXXXX and will move towards the wash tub. I apply paste on my brush and will start the process of brushing. As I brush my teeth I move towards the kitchen and switch on the gas stove. I will wait for the water to boil. I will go to toilet again to wash my mouth and face. Once that is done I am back in kitchen again. I will pour the boiled water into a tea cup, add some sugar and drop a tea bag into it. My morning tea is ready. Sometimes I eat some snacks also. Most of the days I don’t finish my tea because of lack of time. The next step is to enter the bath room. I will move towards the wash tub again to have a hair wash. This is something which I enjoy. After wards I enter the bedroom to change my dress which includes wearing shirt, putting on the trousers, wearing the belt and tie and finally socks and shoes. After that I stand before the mirror to adjust my tie and to button my shirt. I apply perfume and place the rosary in my pocket. I stand before him and make the cross sign. I come to the living room, take my bag and mobile and will leave the home to enter the waiting taxi.

Bryan Adams - Eleven - We Found What We Were Looking For

secret window

2009-05-22T01:24:00.001+05:30

this is a wonderful experience as such

hope to use this to the full extent possible

My portable

2009-05-10T08:55:00.001+05:30

Understanding

2009-03-19T22:57:00.003+05:30

I don’t believe in crying over spilt milk. ‘Jo beet gaya so baat gaya’. A frightening four months gap between my last blog and this one. Since the exercise of writing a blog is purely a personal event, I am not accountable to anybody. In many ways I was indeed involved in a much more personal adventure, the initial days of my marital life. The act of living together in a strange land was something sweet. Now the summer season is here acting on the thermometer in a harsh way. In these four months many things occurred,

One more year has started its journey towards yet an another year
It rained Oscars in India especially on Panchathan Inn – Kodambakam, Chennai.
Celebrated Valentine’s Day in a special way (did something to kill eco killing, maybe meat for another blog)
Bomb blasts in Bombay
Army mutiny in Bangladesh
Kuthiravattam Pappu passed away

This blog is based on a word which is very easy to understand but the process of understanding itself will be a tedious one. The word becomes meaningful when it is used in the following contexts, Religious fundamentalism, protecting our world and Human relationships.

To understand is a virtue
For a better, bright future
Let us open our eyes and ears
And bury our baseless fears
A understanding life is fine
Sans this life is gonna be filled with pain

Cinematic Dichotomy - Part 2

2008-12-10T19:39:00.002+05:30

In this blog which is a continuation of the previous one I will discuss the word dichotomy in relation to three movies. The detailed definition of the word is something like this - a separation into two divisions that differ widely from or contradict each other (Text courtesy- Microsoft® Encarta® 2006) In all the movies that will be discussed in this blog, there is a predominantly visible dichotomy which really captured my attention. I think every good or bad movie contains some patterns and it is for the intelligent viewer to find it. To do this, he should disengage himself from the colors and sounds of a movie. Look at it from a distance with a critical stand and then note the designs within the movie.

The Exorcism of Emily Rose
The movies, is based on the life of Anneliesse Michel, a young catholic woman from Germany who died in 1976 after unsuccessful attempts to cure her from the alleged state of demonic possession with the use of psychotropic drugs. A church approved exorcism was performed on her, according to her wish. According to the court, her death was caused by medical neglect of the priest watching over her (Movie trivia courtesy – Wikepedia)

The above information clearly explains the inherent dichotomy between facts and faith. The Hollywood machinery has got a strong leniency towards the spiritual and the unknown because that’s what sells. Even an ordinary story of a peasant girl form Orleans was converted into a spiritual façade. (Reference to Joan of Arc) the same applies to a certain extent to Emily Rose. In this case the dichotomy helps and the movie grips the attention of the viewer for the slow but effective building of the arguments in the court. That’s the beauty of the dichotomy. It creates an opposition which is quite meaningful and elegant. The priest (supernatural, divine) on one side and the public prosecutor on the other side with his facts, figures, and logic. It is a clash between man of facts and man of faith.

The Devil wears Prada
An easy to watch movie with lots of beautiful faces and colorful dresses. Anne Hathaway is a feast to human eyes. Meryl Streep is old but plays the perfect foil and she knows what acting is. No wonder she got her 14th Oscar nomination for her role as Miranda Priestly – the editor of the fashion magazine Runway. The dichotomy here is between the characters of Streep and Anne Hathaway. The former is one is quite demanding and domineering. She is not concerned about human bonds and invests her time and energy in building the magazine. People don’t matter but the circulation of the magazine matters. Anne initially is fascinated by this world but when she sees that her own little world filled with love is crumbling under this pressure she takes her own decision. The final act of throwing the mobile into the street fountain is something which I liked. An act which can be compared to Ibsen’s Nora who shuts the door on her husband’s face.

Spiderman 3
The movie poster itself celebrated the dichotomy. The inner conflict inside Spiderman is amplified and magnified in this third installment from Marvel comics. The usual, red jacket is pitted against the black one. It is not just the ‘uniform’ that changes even the character of Spidy. He becomes more flirtatious and destructive. It looks as if the creators of Spiderman 3 is bored of the same goodie goodie image of Spidy. They want to show him in sinister way and by doing so they make the ardent fans of Spidy ask a stupid question – Oh what has happened to our Spiderman?

Cinematic Dichotomy - Part One

2008-12-07T20:45:00.004+05:30

This blog is about a bunch of movies, which I watched in the recent past. Movies are the best anti-dote for loneliness (I am so blessed that my better half endorses the same view) this statement has been proved true many times in my own life. Now, seated in this classroom at Vocational Training College, Shinas which is 140 km away from Dubai, I am ready to write my first blog for the last month of this year. (Pretty long sentence eh! Strunk and E.B White will reprimand me for this gross of violation of style)
I don’t want to write an ordinary review of the movies. It is not the way. It is a big mistake and will go against my philosophy of writing – i.e. Writing is Creating. So through this blog I am trying to inject some new life and freshness into the whole process of writing and by extension to my life also. Before I attempt to write I would also like to document the different stages in creation of a blog.
The first thing that is necessary is a fine and active mood. Greek literaryscape contains the muse which I think is nothing but the inspiration to write. This inspiration doesn’t come everyday. It is rare and when it comes, I should be able to tap it and use it. This morning it came when I needed it the most. I was waiting in my classroom for my students (which is against the Koan saying – if the student is ready the teacher will appear) I appeared but no students. The reason is as clear as the morning sunrays that are peeping into this classroom – Bakrid celebrations. So the time was perfect and the mood was very much in me.

The next step is finding an answer to the big question – what to write about? This is indeed a difficult phase because most of the time there is never a straight answer to this. I have to look around and inside me to find the solution. Most of the time the answer comes from my heart and today was no different. Movies and their magical worked once again beckoned me and I readily took the plunge. Again there was a problem which I have mentioned earlier in this blog. The yearning to be different came like gushing waters and I meekly succumbed to it. Again the mind started working and finally decided that instead of writing a clichéd review let me find something common in all the movies and luckily I did find something common which I am very good in finding. It all started when I got introduced to the world of African American literature and along with it I got the word – Dichotomy. The word, at first appealed to my research topic i.e. Roots by Alex Haley. It means the differences between something or in other words – opposing things. Since my M.phil research was a continuation of my MA dissertation I was deeply influenced and I started discovering the significance of this in different contexts. I even wrote an article titled – The Beauty and the Beast keeping this idea in mind. So I connected this word with the movies that I have watched recently and thus I got the topic.

One the idea is formed then it is a matter of putting the initial thoughts into a piece of paper and the next step follows soon – use the MS word to type it and after adding the necessary images and put it here….
(To be continued)

Revolution over a cup of Coffee

2008-11-26T15:58:00.003+05:30

Picture Courtesy - Jyothy Karat

This blog has got a nostalgic past and yummy present and a thoughtful future. The common ingredient in all these time frames is a hot cup of coffee. I, imagine myself as a boy with a heavy bag at the gates of my school waiting for dad to come and take me home. Not that everyday he is used to come to pick me up but on certain days and he made those days all the more special by taking me to the nearest Indian Coffee House. For those of you whom don’t what is that, I will cough up some words. It is a restaurant to begin with and it is run by a co-operative employees union which has got strong Communist routes. Anyway the food they serve is not Marxist in taste or appearance. Indian coffee house serves you the best samosas, cutlets, and off course delicious coffee. They have branches all over Kerala and I was surprised to see one here in Muscat too. Long live – Indian Coffee Houses. Going back to that day when my dad mixed coffee with love and served me, I felt hungrier and used to try different dishes from the coffee house. Obviously, the coffee house jaunts always ended with a hot cup of coffee.

These days, coffee has become more popular. Commercialization has taken this common drink of the common man to glassed houses and polished seats. Café Coffee day, Quikwy’s, Starbucks, Costa, Barrista you got exciting names everywhere. With captions like – ‘A lot can happen over a cup of coffee’, these new coffee vendors invite customers and make things happen over a cup of coffee. As a student in Loyola, I was excited to watch the inside activities at Quikwy’s, where they had a bell installed so that the satisfied customers can ring it. Most of them, they did that irrespective of how the coffee tasted. Only once I had the opportunity to enter that ‘coffee pub’ and but not to drink coffee but to discuss my failed international teaching opportunity. Incidentally that offer was from Colombia which is famous for its coffee rich countryside. I have seen boys and girls huddled together over a cup of coffee discussing ‘serious’ issues like – Why you love me? , What is love? , and how to put an end to this love affair?

In the days to come I foresee a great demand for this drink, life is becoming difficult and the best way to ‘cool’ our heels is to drink a ‘hot’ cup of coffee and talk to either yourself or a trusted friend. I am sure that it will make a hell lot of difference. There are proof for this in almost cultures where coffee is a national drink. Italy, Mexico, Ireland, there have been social changes and coffee acted as a catalyst. So if we desire for a change within ourselves and the world in general, the best thing to do is to sit across a coffee table and simply talk. Coffee can, indeed be a life savior.

Barrack Obama and Me

2008-11-24T21:17:00.005+05:30

The US presidential elections this time was more popular than the Olympics games. Thanks to the strong media support the racial clout that surrounded it. Me too was drawn into this political whirlpool knowingly or unknowingly. I am happy to recollect that when I was working in Tumkur, near Bangalore in the media department of SSIT, I used to have this intense and extensive discussion with my director Dr Suchetana Swaroop. He supported the republicans and I supported Obama. I did the same not because of any political connection as such. It was because I liked Obama right from the day one I saw him in the paper as the US presidential candidate. He face grabbed my attention and it was devotion and respect at the first sight. There was something special on that face. Now, if try to define what exactly is on his face, the only word that I can think about is the word – FOCUS. It looks as if he knows where he is going. If the caption for his campaigning was something fascinating. Change – What we can believe in. In these present days when, the whole world is burning I found Obama a perfect person standing tall with some hope. I have given some quotes by Obama here, that makes my eulogy for him complete.
Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.
Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.
This is the moment when we must come together to save this planet. Let us resolve that we will not leave our children a world where the oceans rise and famine spreads and terrible storms devastate our lands.
We have real enemies in the world. These enemies must be found. They must be pursued and they must be defeated.
You know, my faith is one that admits some doubt.

Thoughts on Marriage

2008-10-22T19:10:00.006+05:30

Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing." - Goethe

They say that marriages are made in heaven. It is such a stupid saying that doesn't take into account the hard realities of life. I have a friend who is more worried about making life a romantic affair. He tells me that I take like too seriously and as a distant fan of 'Chetan Bhagat' I should not take life seriously. Marriage means (according to me) two people living together for a considerable amount of time (if they are lucky) with the 'support',' help' and 'blessings' of the elders and most important the society.
I think that there is a three stage development in any marriage. The initial days of discovering each other. Some may hurry in this phase and things may get entangled in unnecessary emotional/physical traps. In the second stage, there is a reduction of speed from 120 km/hr to 40 km/ hr. This is the real stage of enlightenment. Both will open their eyes and they will start looking at each other from an angle that can be filled with love or despair. For the first time they realize that there is a world outside the 'cocoon' of marital bonds. In the third stage and the final stage, the entry of a cherubic little boy or girl will bring them together. For me this is the real and true stage in marriage. Two lives struggling for one life. There will be lots of meaning and sacrifice in this stage. This is also the stage when marriage becomes a truly gratifying experience.
Reader, you may wonder what made me write this particular blog, the reason is I got married few days back and my soul mate's name is Shincy, She is a math teacher by profession. We have just started our life together so if you are in a mood to pray for us do that NOW. This blog I dedicate for her and I also express my heartfelt thanks to God for blessing us in the holy matrimony.

Bus ride -First time

2008-10-06T02:03:00.001+05:30

From Muscat to Sohar,distance 300kms,time taken 3hrs,service-Oman National Transort Corporation,ONTC,Bus model-MAN

Rules to blog by

2008-10-02T15:41:00.002+05:30

The following rules appeared in the TOI - Mumbai edition on September 28, 2008. It is kind of interesting for young and old bloggers...
1. You shall not put your blog before your integrity
2. You shall not make an idol of your blog
3. You shall not misuse your screen name by using your anonymity to sin
4. Remember the Sabbath day by taking one day off a week from your blog
5. Honour your fellow-bloggers above yourselves and do not give undue significance to their mistakes
6. You shall not murder someone else’s honour, reputation, or feelings
7. You shall not use the web to commit or permit adultery in your mind
8. You shall not steal another person’s content
9. You shall not give false testimony against your fellow bloggers
10. You shall not covet your neighbour’s blog ranking. Be content with your own content.

Speaking through Pics

2008-09-25T13:43:00.011+05:30

The kind of liquid that not just runs automobiles but even the economy

Hard rocks surround the capital city of Muscat

Away from Literature

2008-09-25T13:43:00.007+05:30

I completed my Master's in Language and Literature from Loyola in the year 2000. It’s been 8 years and when I look back the former part of the degree seems to have helped me rather than the latter one. I became aware of this academic dichotomy the moment I started wearing the teacher’s garb. Language is for livelihood and literature is for your intellectual curiosity. I was swimming around the vast ocean literariness till my M.phil days; my thesis was related to the structuralist (psychoanalysis) French critic Jacques Lacan. I dabbled with the toughest theories of Lacan and the outcome was I realised that my research was nothing compared to the vast amount of studies that is been already done in psychoanalysis.
My teaching made me come in touch with the real problems of students. They were not interested in Lacan or Shakespeare. They were more focussed that I was, they wanted to speak and write faultless English to earn a livelihood. So my classrooms made me more practical and took me away from the fictional world of literature. Letters, words, sentences and paragraphs became my world. These days it has become more hardcore with different types of ESP’s – English for Specific purposes. If I remember correctly till date I have familiarised with more that five types of ESP’s

English for Media
English for Management
English for Fashion Designing
English through the Internet
English for Business
English through Literature,

After my arrival here in Oman, I have entered the world of Technical English.
It is not that I am totally cut off from the world of make believe. Movies fill this fictional gap and it is quite interactive and richer than literature.

An Elegy on Music...

2008-09-22T22:36:00.005+05:30

Death note of the Lebanese singer Sussaine Thameem who was ‘murdered’ recently in Dubai.
(Translated from Malayalam)
Marriage or Murder
(In the name of the most compassionate and merciful God. We come from Him and we return to Him)
My real estate property, ornaments, and other valuable items should go to my mother and brother. Nobody else should get a share of the same. The orphans and homeless ones should be protected and should be fed. Virtuous acts should be carried out and care should be taken to tread on the path of righteousness.

I sincerely apologize to those who had suffered because of me. You should pray for me so that I receive mercy from Almighty. Forgive me for all those mistakes that I have committed.

Please show some respect towards me after my death. My mother should be given extra love and care. Special time should be found to take care of her.

You should never do things that will bring upon the wrath of God.

My Libyan episode made me fell in love with singers from the world of Arab music. One of the first things I did after my arrival here is to sync my iPod to the latest in Arabic Pop music. My all time favourite is Nancy Agram – Lebanese by birth but settled in Dubai. When I read the above quoted news item in the Dubai edition of Malayala Manorama, at least for sometime I got a glimpse of the rotten underbelly of the Arab music industry. One of the USP’s of these singers is the deadly combination of beauty and voice. Both these accelerate them to instant stardom status. Their popularity is limited to the Gulf but it is deep rooted and filled with glitz. The lucky ones gets settled in Dubai and this the place where they go around doing their musical harvesting. They sing at parties (private) and clubs, sometimes they are flown into distant places like Libya and Morocco. Money is never a constraint and compared to their male counterparts they have a better ‘salability’.

The Old Face of Oman

2008-09-21T23:21:00.001+05:30

Again it is been a long time since I penned a few lines in this space. I am kind of busy these days knowing a new culture and going back to the basic philosophy of this blog, I write only for my pleasure. I do have some readers and I thank them for their occasional tidbit of wisdom and suggestions.
Earlier, writing had been a much easier exercise. As soon as I got into my work place i.e. language lab I had the time and space to scribble my thoughts. Those days are gone I think. Life is harder when it comes to blogging. I have to come to an internet café and key in these words. Language lab was the beginning – easy and cool and it gave me enough space to get started. I would have written more than 100 blogs seated inside language lab. So, the honeymoon is over and now is the time to actually get into the act of real blogging. There are challenges everywhere and I am stirred by the actual need to write something. This time I am investing a small amount to write my blogs (surfing charges).
Being in a land away from home is a definitely new experience and the little writer in me is constantly haunted by scenes and sights which translate itself into words and sentences. Since I go out for evening walks everyday (sometimes alone, sometimes with some company) I feel the writer in me coming to life.
One of the things which really grabbed my attention is about the plight of the older or elderly generation of this country. I see them in street corners, in expensive cars staring outside with a enigmatic expression on their face, and sometimes in the company of other oldies. I feel that this elderly group, the so called senior citizens of this country will have a story to tell. About the changes in all walks of life. From the mode of transportation to the change in food habits, they have witnessed it all. They are silent, and they move like shadows in the streets. I feel that the changes have made them muted forever. When I look into their faces I feel that they have stories to tell but who is there to listen to them.
(The inspiration to write this blog came from the sight of an old man seated in the front seat of an expensive car who was looking at me in an earnest way. I found him to be aloof towards what was happening around him. He was just drifting in the heavy flow of life and i am sure that one day he will disappear, unnoticed)

Welcoming a New Culture

2008-09-12T19:43:00.006+05:30

Once again life has taken me to a new place, away from home and it is quite surprising that it took such a long time for me to write something about the new culture. I arrived in Muscat on the 1st of September. The airport was pretty deserted because I was one of the early birds to land. After getting the visa stamped in my passport I had to wait for some time for the vehicle which was supposed to take me to work place. In one way the waiting proved to be a blessing in disguise. I got enough time to observe and learn from the people as the life around me was slowly 'waking up'. It also gave me enough time to get for currency exchange and buying the mobile card. In Oman we have two service providers once is Oman mobile and the other one is Nawras. The former managed by the government and the other is a private one.

Once the vehicle arrived, it was time to see the outside world. The first thing which struck me and my body was the heat. It was bad and I was eager to get into the waiting car. It was like stepping from a desert into a hill station. The roads are smooth as silk here and the vehicle just glides on it as the speedometer steadily climbs into a 130-140 figure. The sights and sounds are almost similar to the ones that I had experienced in Libya. I stayed at the guest house for 3-4 days to complete my formalities which included Resident Card (I dare not compare this with the my experience in Libya which was an excruciating one)
I hope to write more about my life in the coming days and I hope once I get back to India or when I change my place once again I will be able to at least munch the memories through this virtual space.

My classroom or my new learning space - Time will tell

One strange shaped car - captured from the streets of Muscat.

The Road now taken

2008-08-20T11:48:00.002+05:30

Chetan Effect

2008-08-11T13:37:00.003+05:30

I rarely read all the books written by an author. I have not read the complete works of Shakespeare (I do not want to) nor any of the literary giants living or dead. Strangely enough, I have read all the books written by best selling Indian author - Chetan Bhagat. It all started with ‘FPS’ then ‘One nite @ the call Center’ and the recent one ‘The Three Mistakes of My Life’. A strange occurrence indeed. I did something which is stranger than this - writing a review to Chetan on his number 3. The strangeness came to a full circle when i received a reply from him. Almost the whole of last week of my classroom time was spend discussing the speech given by Chetan at Symbiosis Pune. It is a good one (We i.e. me and my students agreed) in this speech he talks about the need to have the spark within us to live our lives in a lovely way. He also warns against the factors that may act against this spark. The full text can be accessed at www.chetanbhagat.com. Given below is my review and the reply which I received from him.

Hi Chetan
Thanks for giving all of us one more chance to forget this world and its trivialities (at least for some hours) 3 was good. To be frank with you i had enjoyed the neha love episode in FPS but somehow this vidya one didn't strike a chord in me. i felt it was too immature and unrealistic. Maybe i am getting old or you are becoming younger. Anyway hope you will give us one more chance to forget this world ASAP....wishes – Prem

Will definitely do.
Thank you so much for being my support

God bless
Chetan

Getting to know Cuil

2008-08-04T17:59:00.000+05:30

Riding the Time Capsule...

2008-08-04T12:43:00.005+05:30

It’s been a while since I wrote a post. Was kind of busy with the ‘ups’ and ‘downs’ of life. I was rather lucky to be blessed with more 'ups' and few 'downs'. My time was spent in traveling, reading, sleeping, and immersed in Need for Speed. In short these activities sum up my vacation. I traveled once again in my 'darling' to Pune and Bombay with a pit stop at Lonawala. I finished reading two books - 'Motorcycle Dairies by Che Guevara and ‘Three mistakes of my Life’ by Chetan Bhagat. I slept like a log at my home and surprisingly my parents didn't complain much about that nor did they say anything when I spend laborious hours on the PC playing NFS Hot Pursuit. They just had the peace of understanding on their faces. This was also the time for me to do many household chores. In a way I enjoyed it. The future is as usual unknown and kind of like the feeling that I am moving towards the unknown once again. Hope there will be only ‘ups’ and few ‘downs’ this time.

Caste

2008-07-10T17:45:00.002+05:30

You should never be in haste
To ask somebody’s caste
Th real value of a human being
Exists not in caste but heart to heart feeling

I hate them, who hanker after caste
I wish that they don’t last
The world will be a better place
With everybody living in peace

Is that an impossible dream?
Yes it is – They want to scream
Hatred, Violence, Blood shed
The agenda is already fixed

Disturbed minds and obnoxious behavior
The only hope is in death – the great leveler

Waiting

2008-07-10T16:47:00.001+05:30

I have always wondered why they have waiting rooms in railway stations and airports. passengers wait for their particular means of conveyance in these rooms and sometimes this waiting can become a pathetic experience. I was ‘inspired’ to write this blog based on a similar excruciating experience. Being a literature buff I have over familiarized with Samuel Beckett’s ‘Waiting for Godot’ and its existential theme. The play somehow fails to accommodate the mundane side of the act called waiting. The stress seems to be on the word Godot than the waiting. Even critics have broken their heads trying to define Godot.

My attempt here is to discuss different situations in our ordinary life where waiting is a pain, a pleasure, a heady mix of both pain & pleasure, and sometimes we are not even aware that we are waiting.

Waiting for a call from our loved ones is both a painful and pleasure filled act. Waiting in the queue for purchasing a cinema ticket is quite exciting. Waiting for an important mail can be a quite painful experience. Waiting for the food to be served in a restaurant (especially if you are hungry) can be a horrible thing. A waiter in a café is the personified form of this human activity. Waiting for results is an experience filled with tension and fear. Some of us wait for tomorrow to do things which we are supposed to do today. According to the Indian tradition and customs, there is a time (kaal) to do things, even to copulate and all that can be done is to wait.

As write this post, I am waiting for my mind to conjure new thoughts n ideas on the concept of waiting. Waiting in this case is quite productive because it gives new ideas and makes the post better. Waiting also teaches the most important lesson in life i.e. patience. In life too, it is better to wait than take the plunge along with others to be part of the rat race. If you wait and make your move, you will have better results than the short-lived ones you get when you are hasty.

As Osho says,
One birth has been given to you by your parents,
The other birth is Waiting.
It has to be given to you by yourself.
You have to father and mother yourself.
Then your whole energy is turning in--
It becomes an inner circle.

Dr C Sahasranam - An Obituary

2008-06-30T17:41:00.008+05:30

The news of his death was a surprise to me. Thats one thing about death it always comes unexpectedly. I pay my condolences to his family members and I pray that let his soul rest in peace. He was the one who had thousand names, but to me and my colleagues he was the man with the Natural Head Band..adieu sir...We will one day come after you, don't know when...We will miss your smile and brisk walk...

The Counterfeiters

2008-06-30T11:00:00.002+05:30

Once again I was drawn into the world of movies and this time it was the Counterfeiters, an Austrian movie which won the Oscars in the foreign film category. Watching this movie I also realized why an Indian movie never won an Oscar in this category. The three shortcomings of Indian cinema is listed below.

Indian formula of hero centered movies

Lack of originality in script

Too much of embellishments like songs and overacting.

I befriended ‘The Counterfeiters’ some three months back when I saw the Podcast, Movie Minutes from New York Times where A.O Scott reviewed the movie in his own impeccable style. The discovery of the DVD at the B’lore ‘cinema paradiso’ made me feel quite cinematic and the quality of the print was excellent. This is not an English movie but it has got three languages – German, Austrian and Russian. Subtitles help us a lot. The movie is based on a true story and it is based on the Nazis project called Project Bernhard," the aims of which include destabilizing the economies of Britain and the USA by producing and circulating vast quantities of forged banknotes. This is also the story of Salomon 'Sally' Sorowitsch who is described as the King of Counterfeiters. He is an artist and through his art he saves himself and the life of others around him. Outstanding acting from Karl Markovics is one of the highest points of the film.
The tags that I found attached to the film were –
A genius con artist put to work by the Nazis. A survivor's tale you've never seen before.
It takes a clever man to make money; it takes a genius to stay alive

Gifts and Human Beings

2008-06-30T10:11:00.003+05:30

O.Henry’s story ‘The Gift of the Magi’ clearly shows the true value of a gift and the sacrifices involved in giving and receiving a gift. This blog examines the concept of gifts and how it is plays a part in human life.
According to me a gift is political, personal and divine. These three classifications are kind of far fetched but still they cover the whole gamut of this concept. Being brought up in a country where the word colonial hangover had a strong affect I couldn’t but notice the political implications of a gift. India in the past was nothing but a collection of princely states and they were not at all amicable with each other. When the British made their presence felt many of these princely rulers sought their help to crush their enemies. One way they struck an alliance with the British was by offering them gifts which included rare gems, diamonds and even their beautiful women subjects which led to the establishment of the Anglo-Indian community. The history of gifts can be traced further back to the splendid days of the Mughal emperors. Birbal, the Grand Vizier received gifts from Akbar for his witty remarks and administrative capabilities. Down in South India a court-poet of the Vijayanagara Empire in the 16th century CE by the name Tenali Raman received gifts from his emperor. Even today congress leaders move towards 10 Janapth to present the Madame with gifts hoping to win her favour. The same is the case with AIDMK followers who revolve around Poes Garden to get the ‘darshan’ of Amma.
When it comes to personal level of gifts it becomes emotional and there is lots of excitement in the air. Here the heart matters whereas in the political scenario it is the head that matters. My life is a gift from my mom and dad and my gift to them is take care of them when they need me. Lovers exchange gifts and make the feeling of love commercialized. Valentines Day thus becomes a day for exchanging gifts which sometimes involves little ego and a high dose of snobbishness. I am reminded of the Amul ad of the 90’s which had a beautiful caption which said ‘A gift for someone you love’. The art of giving and receiving gifts in the personal domain sometimes borders on politics when a husband tries to woo his wife by giving an expensive kanchipuram saree. It is nothing but love politicized.
The third type of gifts which to me is apolitical and sacred is the one involving divinity. Nothing equals to this one. It cannot be copied or faked it 100% original. All the singers in this world, players, and even leaders they are gifted from above. SPB, K.J Yesudas, K.S Chitra, A.R Rehaman, Kishore da and all others who were truly gifted by God himself. Sachin Tendulkar, Kapil Dev, V.Anand, Schumi and thousands of others received a rare and exquisite gift from god which we can call as – Talent or Genius. Even I feel that I have received some precious gifts from my maker, like this one what I am doing, writing - plus interpersonal skills.
I feel that each one of us posses a gift from above and the whole purpose of our life is to figure out what exactly is that gift as the quote goes - “Everyone is gifted - but some people never open their package”

Papillon...Born to be free...

2008-06-26T10:21:00.004+05:30

You can look at your life the way you want to look at it. You can just survive, exist or you can live. Papillon, added one more dimension to this list of being free. He wanted to be free, break all the shackles of suppression and fly away like the butterfly. The central motif of the movie is the butterfly image that is tattooed on the chest of Papillon, wonderfully brought to screen life by Steve McQueen. He is complemented by Dustin Hoffman who is the infamous counterfeiter – Louis Degas.
Papillon echoes the theme of other great movies which dealt with prison breaks like – The Great Escape, and Escape from Alcatraz. I feel that the treatment here is different. Unlike other movies, this movie is all about a person, an individual who has got a plan and that’s one reason why I enjoyed this one. It gives you a vivid picture of life inside and outside the prison.
The internal life is filled with reclusion, the infamous death sentence machine Guillotine, homosexuality, blood ducking vampire, half rations, cockroach plus centipede soup – the events and things are endless. Life outside the prison is more hazardous with poison arrows, lepers, rapid river, swamps and bounty hunters. This was Papillion’s life and he was not affected by this coz he had his own way of defeating all the odds. This movie is worth watching to understand the true meaning of words like – hope, friendship, courage, and finally freedom.

Me and Rumi

2008-06-23T16:15:00.004+05:30

Rumi was a Persain poet who lived in the 13th century (1207–1273). He was also a jurist and a theologian. During a 25 year period, he composed over 70,000 verses of poetry. The main themes of his poems are love and longing for unity. He believed that music, dance and poetry were a path for reaching God.Rumi's work has been translated into many languages around the world, including Spanish, Arabic, German, Turkish, Russian, and English, among others. His works are being performed at concerts, readings, workshops, dance performances, and in other artist creations.

Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart.
It may be that the satisfaction I need depends on my going away, so that when I've gone and come back, I'll find it at home.
Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.
Something opens our wings. Something makes boredom and hurt disappear. Someone fills the cup in front of us: We taste only sacredness.
The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you; Don't go back to sleep. You must ask for what you really want; Don't go back to sleep. People are going back and forth across the doorsill where the two worlds touch. The door is round and open. Don't go back to sleep.
This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First to let go of life. Finally, to take a step without feet.
We come spinning out of nothingness, scattering stars like dust.
Inside the Great Mystery that is, we don't really own anything.
Don't grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form
The rain-weeping and the sun burning twine together to make us grow.
Respond to every call that excites your spirit.
When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.
Your essence is gold hidden in dust. To reveal its splendor you need to burn in the fire of love.
Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond...
Every object, every being, is a jar full of delight.
At last you have departed and gone to the Unseen. What marvelous route did you take from this world?
Knowing that conscious decisions and personal memory are much too small a place to live, every human being streams at night into the loving nowhere, or during the day, in some absorbing work.

Celebration through Music

2008-06-18T16:27:00.014+05:30

Most of my blogs are based on music, cinema and books, because these three are the lifelines of my life. This blog is all about connecting music and the supreme power which is described by three letters as GOD. Songs and prayers have always co-existed. I have enjoyed the Christian hymns that were sung in our church and also the devotional songs on Lord Ayyapa and Guruvayoorapan.
Recently, I came across four songs which celebrated unbridled devotion and support to the supreme one. Music composer undoubtedly was A.R Rehaman and the movie is Jodha Akbar. I feel that the movie is all about celebration (religious sense), an ecstasy filled atmosphere where something is worshipped. There are two songs in the movie which celebrates something that is mundane i.e. Love for the Kingdom and the King and the emotion of love between Akbar and Jodha. The other two songs are purely devotional and they are my favorites.

The song Azeem-O-Shaan Shahenshah celebrates the magnificence of the Emperor Akbar. The crowd sings eulogies to him and refers to him as Shahenshah; they welcome him and enthrone him in their heart. The song is fast paced with the drum beat kind of reflecting the fact that Akbar is the heart throb of the people. The movie, as the title indicates also talks about the attraction that Akbar had towards Jodha Bhai and later it became mutual. Besides celebrating the oneness of Hindu-Muslim community, the movie celebrates love between individuals. The song Jashn-e-bahaara gives a musical expression to this universal emotion.

The other two songs which as I have mentioned before are my favs is pure classical music and one is sung by Rehaman himself. The song is Khwaja Mere Khwaja and it is based on Sufi rhythms. It begins in a humble & simple way and then gradually picks up tempo as if the song, singer and the listener are caught up in a trance like state. I am reminded of the dervishes who dance to the tunes of Rumi music. The song is meditative, melancholic and it speaks about the total surrender before the ultimate one. A.R Rehaman has got that pure magic in his voice which is so evident in the song Vellai Pukkal from the Tamil movie – Kannathil Muthamittal. The next song is Man Mohana sung by Bela Shende. She is a treat and I feel that she will dominate the Indian cinema when it comes to classical music. The voice is tantalizing and the lyrics penned by Javed Akhtar is meaningful. The song worships Shi Krishna and there is a stage in the song where she sings the Man Mohana in four different ways. WOW – that’s indeed a treat, amazing voice. God bless her…

Rare Gems from Russia and Pakistan

2008-06-17T15:47:00.004+05:30

Today I stumbled upon two short stories. I should thank William Dalrymple for the web links he provided in his Outlook magazine book review. (I think he has became a regular with the magazine) I was able to strike literary gold by visiting www.newyorker.com. I read short stories one from a renowned author who is also one of my favorites - Vladimir Nabokov titled - Natasha. The second one was from a Pakistani story-teller Daniyal Mueenuddin titled - Nawabdin Electrician.

Natasha tells us about the life a girl who is nursing her father who is dying. His mind is filled with fears of the war that he had fought. Apart from Natasha and her father, the other character is Baron Wolfe. He is in his late thirties and one day takes Natasha on a picnic to the country side - The day when her father, Khrenov succumbs to death. The story is appealing for the style of Nabokov which made Lolita an unforgettable experience. The subtlety with which the reader is made to experience the feelings of Wolfe towards Natasha is wonderful –
‘Leaning over the bannister, Wolfe glanced back at her. For an instant he caught sight from overhead of the sleek, girlish part in her hair’
I think it is purely cinematic and hence vivid. The story explores the mindscape of the three characters – Natasha who is a dreamy girl, trying to get out of the greasy situation of life by fantasizing. Wolfe, who concocts stories about distant lands and people. The picnic scene involving Natasha and Wolfe is highly picturesque and reminded me of the Loft Scene in Sons and Lovers of D.H Lawrence.

The second story which is from across the border (Pakistan) tells the story of an electrician who is in charge of a farm. He’s got thirteen daughters because he was married at an earlier age to ‘a sweet woman of unsurpassed fertility’. The story is a sketch of Nawabdin’s life as the electrician. The story can be divided into two parts, the first part deals with Nawabdin cycling along the farms repairing and trouble shooting electrical problems. In the second part Nawabdin, is given a motorcycle and his social status increases. ‘The motorcycle increased his status, gave him weight, so that people began calling him Uncle and asking his opinion on world affairs, about which he knew absolutely nothing. He could now range farther, doing much wider business’. The story ends with Nawabdin lying in the hospital bed in a pool of blood, ignoring the pleas of the robber who tried to attack him and steal his bike. I don’t think the story has got multiple levels of meaning. It is just a story and as the old adage goes – there are no questions asked when you read/listen to a story.

My 100th Blog...

2008-06-16T16:46:00.005+05:30

PARTY TIME , this is my 100th blog, time to look back with pride and look ahead with hopes and more dreams. I should thank everybody at Blogger and Google for creating an online space like this. This is one thing which really helped the writer in me to prosper...the process is going on. Hopefully I will be able to celebrate my 200th blog very soon. As it should happen, this was like life, with numerous ups and downs. earlier I used to write thinking about the people who are gonna read my blog. As I realised that I am the only regular reader for my blog, I learnt the lesson that post not for others but for myself. Still there were some readers. I thank them from the bottom of my heart not throat. after I started blogging and I became a blogger, I was able to convert atleast 30-40 people into bloggers and I am really happy that they too have started writing blogs. Me, along with them have embarked on a journey into the world of words...

The Right thing to do is Write...so goes the saying and I wish all of them a fantastic writing spree

My Musical Journey

2008-06-14T10:03:00.004+05:30

I am kind of excited when I write this words coz the topic is close to my heart. I do not know whether I can really document the true spirit of music and its influence in my life. I owe a lot to my dad who is a true connoisseur of music. One object which he bought with his first salary was a gramophone record player. It is still there gathering dust in a corner of our house. Everybody has moved on to CDs and other digital gadgets. I also remember my friend Shenoy who used to share his cassettes with me. He is also the one who introduced me to western music. I have listened to George Michaels Wham – The Best a hundred times which had the lovely track – Last Christmas. Then it was Shenoy again who introduced me to one of my favourite band till date – MLTR. Shenoy moved away from our colony and I don’t know where he is now.
My Dad had even managed to find a place in the city of Calicut where they recorded music and rented cassettes for a nominal fee. If I remember it was 2rs per cassette. The name of the shop was Ragini Music. I used to make frequent trips to this shop and dad supported me irking my mom. Most of my evenings were spent sitting in front of the Fischer player either listening to radio or playing my favourite tape.
My love for western music took a new turn when DD2 started a trial transmission of MTV for two hours every evening. I became a voracious viewer. I still remember some songs which came in MTV during that period. Oasis with Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Enya – Time (which mom liked) and Michael Jackson’s Earth Song. I found a shop near Nadakkavu market which recorded music from CD. The shop name was CD FX.They charged a hefty 50 bucks for each cassette, but it was worth it. Jon Bon Jovi enthralled me with Its My Life and MJ with Heal the World. This is also the time when A.R Rehaman became part of my life. I also remember forcing my dad and mom to sit watch Yanni performing at the Taj Mahal
It is only after I started earning on my own that I got the freedom to buy music and try out new things. I owe a lot Sahaya Illam Chezhian who introduced me to the world of New Age music and Trance. He had a lovely collection and sometimes if he is in a good mood used to describe the songs to me. I still remember one CD which was titled – Chants of India by Ravi Sankar which he made me buy from Landmark – Chennai. It was worth buying. In many ways musically I owe a lot to Che (in Spanish it means mate or partner). I cannot forget the day when me and Che played Enigma – Principles of Lust on a stage that was supposed to be the altar for Maundy Thursday services at Loyola. Che also introduced me to the exciting world of movie soundtracks. The next person who influenced me was my own student – Manickvel. He used to do part time work at Music World at Spenser’s and he had a mammoth collection of songs. I used to sit with post midnight and record songs. We had planned project to record the songs of all artists according to the alphabetical order but some how the project got fizzled out. We started with Aerosmith, did BSB, Corrs, and then ended with Dire Straits.
At MCC, it was Shainu, Prince, and Vimal who shaped my musical sensibilities. Shainu and Vimal took me to the world of 70’s and 80’s of Western music with artists like Peter, Paul, and Mary, The Doors, Billy Joel. There is one person in MCC who is still a bachelor and is the greatest music lover I have ever met in my life. We all call him Suri sir. I like him for three things – First he is still a bachelor, second – he spends large sums of his salary to buy music and thirdly I like him for his possessiveness about his music collection. He never gave me music CD or a DVD, but still I do not have any grudges against him. He is the one who got hooked me into Travelling Wilburys and the legendary Beatles.
The more I got to know the world of music, I feel all the more deprived. I am more like Einstein who described himself as a small child standing on the shore of knowledge picking a pebble or two while the vast ocean of knowledge is stretched out in front of him.

The Dreamers

2008-06-13T09:54:00.003+05:30

I got to experience the passion and the beauty of Bernardo Bertolucci's magic world once again. Last time it was 'The Last Emperor' and last night it was 'The Dreamers'. The movie is set in the cradle of fashion and cinema - Paris and it is not a romantic scene out there - There are student mobs and police, armed with tear gas and then there is Theo, Isabelle and Matthew. This time Bertolucci's does not depend on time to tell the story. So there is no flash back technique in Dreamers unlike the 'The Last Emperor'. In this movie there are two worlds –‘internal’ – kind of Bohemian in style and the other one, ‘external’, which is filled with the flames of 1968 student revolution. The inside world is mainly happens in a Cinema hall and Theo’s home and the outside world is the riot torn streets of Paris.
I really could see the motive behind using the three characters, both Theo and Isabelle belongs to the base of a triangular relationship. Mathew occupies the head of the triangle and he serves more as a commentator or a kind of choral character. They complement each other but at the end, nothing even Mathew could not separate the twins – Theo and Isabelle.
Bertolucci's films are explorations into the human psyche. (Wikepedia). The title of the movie is very much indicative of this. Theo and Isabelle lives in a dream world filled with cinema images. It is also interesting to note that the corridor leading to Theo’s and Matthew’s rooms are narrow and mostly dark but lit up occasionally by red light. The movie is also worth watching for its depth study of the Classics. Even when Isabelle contemplates the act of suicide she got a cinematic image running in her mind. There is even heated argument between Theo and Matthew on whether Keaton or Chaplin is better. There is French culture splattered every where. Discussion about Godrad, French food – Ratatouille, literary books all makes the movie a cultural treat.
Bertolucci's discusses love and violence in this movies and he does it by showing love and lust intertwined. The movie was given a NC17 certificate in the US for its explicit portrayal of nudity and sex. I feel that the sexual scenes are beautifully portrayed and it is a visual treat. One scene which I fondly recollect is the scene that happens in Isabelle’s room, where she behaves likes Venus Adonis. I remember one line from the movie which made me think about my own life and human life in general. - 'There is nothing called as pure love, there are only proofs of love'

My Best Nature Photographs...

2008-06-10T18:30:00.005+05:30

Not that I am an avid photographer. After purchasing my mobile ( Sony Ericsson K610i) which has a humble 2 megapixel camera, I started clicking away...and here are some of the snaps of nature that I captured. I think blogging is the best way to preserve the photographs for posterity...

Samsara

2008-06-10T16:37:00.003+05:30

Samsara means the universe or the world. It also refers to the cycle of reincarnation and rebirth. The movie is kind of inspired by Herman Hesse's Siddhartha. I had some difficulty in understanding the meaning or the essence of the film. Two days after I watched the movie, the meaning slowly sunk into me. The path you take in your life is always determined by some external forces. As it is said in the movie - Do you want to satisfy one thousand desires or do you want to conquer one? You are like the small twing in a river and you are always moving forward.

It is just the direction that matters not the place or events that occur around you. The destination is decided and you just have to reach it.

The movie is worth watching for the scenic beauty of Ladakh and the philosophical overtones.