Keeping the BeeGees Mania Alive..!

Come & be a part of Bee Geez!

As boys and girls, we all would have grown up with the beegees, and i'm sure almost all aspects of our lives would've had the colour and influence of the beegees almost 
every other day. Well, can we ever forget "It's only words.." or their famous 
albums like 'Monday's Rain', or 'Horizontal' or 'Ideas'... indeed... 
butterflies flutter all over when you're glued to them...
Yes, the band is sure to take you on a trip down 
memory lane, through all the greatest hits 
and more..! Come & Immerse yourself in 
the eternally classic & soulistic songs 
at Phoenix Market City. 
[and yes, i'll be there, too]

Date: Saturday, 28 February 2015

Time: 7 pm onwards

Venue: The Courtyard @ Phoenix MarketCity, 

142, Velachery Main Road, Velachery, Chennai – 42.

Ibsen in Town..!!!

It indeed is quite heartening to see hordes of spectators making a beeline for one of the well-renowned theatre spaces in the city at Chetpet, well ahead of the scheduled time of 7 pm, for a German rendition of the popular playwright Henrik Ibsen’s “An Enemy of the People”. Well, the early birds [this blogger included :-)] were catching up with their long-lost literary pals, cappuchino in hand, at the Coffee-Day joint in Campus, and around the shades of the huge banyan tree - that gives the venue its fascinating aura.

Thomas Ostermeier, the director of the play, and one of the most influential theatre directors worldwide, said that, when he first discovered Ibsen’s drama “Enemy of the People”, he didn’t really like it. But the subject made him direct it despite of that. So, together with his dramaturg Florian Borchmeyer he seems to have reworked the play to suit a contemporary audience with a contemporary context. “We also made the main character about 20 years younger – so it’s about the young generation of Berlin. A generation that seems to be politically engaged. They’re mostly vegetarian, they ride bikes instead of driving cars, and they all support various causes. But when it comes to political action or demanding change – it is getting obvious that this is not a strong generation”, he avers.

This is one of Ibsen’s prominent realistic plays, in which an individual’s hopes and dreams for his society are ostracised by the very society which he is trying to help.

Everything about the play was phenomenal. Be it the intricately made up stage design, or the aesthetic appeal of the costume design, or the foot-tapping music (which the characters played literally on stage, to perfection and to aplomb from the audience), or the role of the dramaturg in bringing out an awesome dramaturgy of the text, or the wall paintings which were so realistic, adding to the enhanced visual appeal, or the light designs, or the acting of the main characters Christoph Gawenda as Dr. Stockmann, Eva as Mrs.Stockmann, or the gentlemanly Hovstad, or Morten Kill, or Billing - the impact was immense..!

"Education and Discipline" - Critical Summary

Introduction

The essay “Education and Discipline” by the Nobel laureate Bertrand Russell, was first published in his collection of essays titled, In Praise of Idleness, in 1935. Educational theories generally focus on how learning occurs, and they seek to understand, analyse, and prescribe educational practices. According to Bertrand Russell, the real purpose of education is civilisation, which includes both individual and social aspects. On the individual front, it consists of intellectual and moral qualities, and, on the moral front, it consists of the virtues of impartiality, kindliness, and self-control. Moreover, civilisation also demands respect for the law, and the intelligent adaptation of means to the ends. If this is the purpose of education, then psychologists should consider how to realise them, and analyse the degree of freedom that is essential to make it more effective.

Three Main Schools of Thought on Freedom:

As far as the question of freedom in education is concerned, there are three main schools of thought. The first school of thought says that children should be completely free, however bad they may be. The second school of thought says that children should be completely subject to authority.The third school of thought says that children should be free, but in spite of freedom, they should be always good. According to Russell, complete liberty to the child, ignores the importance of knowledge to the child, and also the positive purpose of education.

At the same time, he also believes that, authoritative education turns the students into timid tyrants, incapable of either claiming or tolerating originality in word or deed. Too much authoritarianism can also lead to over-submissive and timid children or it can also make them rebels. Thus there is danger in both the extremes of liberty and authority.

Free NLP Session for College Students..!

Join the experts in NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) for a free session exclusively for school and college students (till 28 February 2015).

Wanna stop bad habits? Stop addictions? Get over your phobias? Achieve your goals? Peak your performance? Get over depression? Forget unpleasant memories? Sleep well every night? Get over interview fears?

What addiction would you like to change now? Sweets? Chocolates? Watching TV, or Playing games for too long, Obsessive SMS/Whatsapp/FB checking, etc?

Choose some simple and powerful changes that will make a Big Difference in your Life…

What is NLP? NLP is something like an 'users manual' to use your brain! It has been variously described as the technology of the mind, the science of achievement and the study of success, by identifying the ingredients of

Ibsen's Play in Chennai

Goethe-Institut Chennai /Max Mueller Bhavan

in association with Prakriti Foundation & Vivanta by Taj Connemara

presents

GERMAN THEATRE from SCHAUBÜHNE, BERLIN

An Enemy of the People 

by Henrik Ibsen

Version by: Florian Borchmeyer

Direction: Thomas Ostermeier 24 February 2015 | 7.00 p.m.

Venue: Sir Mutha Venkatasubba Rao Concert Hall, 

13/1 Shenstone Park, Harrington Road, Chennai 600 031

With Schaubühne Berlin the Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan brings one of the most reclaimed and innovative places for contemporary German theatre to Chennai.

About the Production: Dr. Stockmann discovers that the source of drinking and spa water is riddled with pathogenic micro-organisms caused by industrial effluence. Stockmann wants to publish the findings in the newspaper and demands that the city council re-route the water pipes. Influential citizens and local journalists promise their support. However, his

Saturday Matinee @ American Library

American Library’s Saturday Film Matinee

The Littlest Rebel

The Littlest Rebel is a film about Virgie Cary, a young girl whose father goes to the War, while her mother falls ill. But when Virgie comes to know that her father, along with a few others, is to be executed, she takes off to meet President Lincoln and requests him to intervene. Duration: 73 minutes.

Date: Saturday, 21 February 2015, 11 am.

Venue: American Library, 220 Anna Salai, Near Gemini Circle

Phone: 044-28574000

Please carry valid photo ID Cards to the Venue.

Mime Theatre Fest @ Alwarpet

Mime Theatre Fest

@ Narada Gana Sabha, 314, TTK Road, Alwarpet, Chennai

On Wednesday, 18 February 2015 (to Sunday, 22 February 2015)

A five-day festival, Mime Fest seeks to bring together mummers from across borders on a single stage. The first and second days will host school students performing a variety of mime art. On the third day, colleges will present their show. The fourth day corporates don the mantle, and on the last day, theatre groups from across the city will conclude the festival with a bang.! 

Photography Workshop

"Mirror" – Sylvia Plath - Critical Summary

Introduction:

The Mirror was written by Sylvia Plath in 1961, but wasn’t published until 1971, eight years after her death by suicide. The poem is written from the perspective of a mirror and details what it sees and how it relates to the woman and other objects within its view. It symbolises the troubled self of the woman, especially the woman artist who has to reject the given masks imposed on her by the patriarchal society and see herself as an artist and an individual.  The mirror imagery in Plath’s poetry therefore, signifies the consciousness of the woman-speaker who verbalises the creative process of a woman artist in the domain of male-dominated literature. The woman artist has to resist the critical and judgemental male gaze to arrive at her own autonomous self-expression.

Mirror and Women’s Passivity:

Freedman believes that, “Plath uses mirror as a symbol of female passivity, subjection, and Plath’s own conflicted self-identity caused by social pressures to reconcile the competing obligations of artistic and domestic life”. The mirror represents the unfeeling male view of a woman and what is socially expected of her: possessing an idealised beauty and ever-lasting youth. As the persona ages over the years, the mirror cruelly reflects the changes in her appearance. Age becomes the persona’s defect and shortcoming and thus her source of anxiety and dismay. The mirror projects what is thought of as the woman as she grows older. It claims to reflect the truth, and by implication, the representation of the patriarchal perception of a woman’s existence, her worth only as a beautiful object,  and her worthlessness when she is no longer young and beautiful. Against the male’s definition of womanhood, which idealises beauty and youth, the persona looks inside to discover her true self, what she was as a person, and what she has become, maturing by age. The woman’s autonomous identity and perception of the self are, therefore in conflict with the stereotype of the dominant male society. The tension increases as the persona is perplexed by this identity crisis. If she chooses her inner self and her own independent definition of identity, when looking in the mirror, she no longer sees the beautiful girl, but the terrible fish.

Seminar @ Hindu College: A Report

A One-day National Level Seminar on 'Methods and Materials for Teaching English Language and Literature' was organised by DRBCCC Hindu College, Chennai on 12 February 2015. The Seminar was well-received by the delegates and participants alike. Dr. K. M. Prabhu spoke on Teaching of Language and Literature. Dr. Shreesh Chaudhary, IIT Madras, spoke on "English for All: Methods and Materials". Dr. P. Kannan spoke on Academic Writing.

Excerpts from his speech: 

English is the only subject, at least in India, which is a part of nearly all academic courses. Since the passage of the Right to Education Act, a large number of students from disadvantaged backgrounds have joined schools and colleges, and they all wish to study English as well as any other subject. According to UNESCO, India with nearly 315 million students has the largest number of students in its schools and colleges. This figure does not include students in institutions unrecognised by the government. But the number of teachers continues to be under 10 million nationwide. That makes for a very adverse teacher to student ratio, especially so for the teaching of a non-native language like English which often requires individual attention.

Richard Wilbur's "The Writer": Critical Summary

Introduction:

PC: seedpodcraft.com

“The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe in”, said Gustave Flaubert. Richard Wilbur, the second Poet Laureate of the United States of America, in the poem “The Writer” reflects on this art of writing, through his daughter’s act of writing.  The poem ruminates on a father watching over his daughter’s tryst with the writing process, even as she is seen typing out a story on her typewriter. The poem thereby, addresses the process of writing, as seen from the perspective of the father, and the emotions, memories and nostalgia that it triggers in him even as he sees his daughter typing out a story in her bedroom upstairs. Although parent-child relationships form a part of the poem’s fabric, the central theme of the poem, is, however, the difficulties and the responsibilities of being a writer.

Intercollegiate Quiz @ CTTE

[click on pic to enlarge]

Book Fest @ Ashok Nagar

Book Festival 2015 

Organised by

National Book House Trust & 

New Century Book House

Time: 9.30 am to 8.30 pm (on all days) 

till 31 March 2015

at

Tamil Nadu Housing Board Complex, 

First Avenue, Ashok Nagar, Chennai

Contact: 9840221753

Run for a Cause..!

Run to Save Baby Turtles

Five-kilometre Run: Line-up Time: 5.45 am

Three-kilometre Run: Line-up Time: 6.10 am

One-kilometre Run: Line-up Time: 6.25 am

5.15 – 5.45 am: ZUMBA Warm-up

Online Registration is closed. 
Spot Registration at Queen Mary’s College, Marina Beach, 
from 10.30 am to 3.30 pm

Regn. Fee: Rs.250/- 

[Registration fetches you free gift vouchers worth Rs.4350/- from reputed brands]

Contact: 9940142349 / 9840575555

MIDS – The Institute Seminar Series - February 2015

Topic: Meaning of Freedom in a Multicultural World

Speaker: Prof.Sehdev Kumar 

[Professor Emeritus of Bioethics & Environ. Studies, University of Waterloo, Canada]

Chairperson: Prof. K. Srinivasan, 

ICSSR National Fellow, MIDS

Date & Time: 9 February 2015, 3.30 pm

Venue: Adiseshiah Auditorium, MIDS

Surprise Visitor to MCC..:

The Botany Department, MCC, had a surprise visitor today at around 9 am. Our thanks to Dr.Narasimhan, Professor, Dept. of Botany, for giving us an opportunity to have a peek at the surprise  visitor - the Asian Hawk Moth.

State Level Intercollegiate Seminar for PG Students

STATE LEVEL INTERCOLLEGIATE SEMINAR FOR PG STUDENTS

on

The Relevance of Myth in Modern Literature

Day & Date: Wednesday, 25 February 2015

Theme of the Seminar: The Seminar will be a platform for PG Students to explore the relationship between Myth & Literature and how myth has been used in works of literature all over the world in the Modern era from T. S. Eliot to Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Last date for Submission of Abstracts: 18 February 2015

Last date for Submission of Full Papers: 23 February 2015

Structure of Charles Lamb's Essays: A Critical Study

There is always a never-ending charm and an aura that accompanies the ‘light and cleverly written’ personal essay. The uniqueness of the personal essay lies in its intimacy – the capacity of the writer to connect – intimately with his/her audience, on matters relating to memoir, philosophical speculations, familial anecdotes, portraits, visualisations, etc. The charm of the personal essay lies not only in its style, language and technique (tone and voice), but also in its capacity to provoke thought and arouse the emotions.

Ideas of political, personal and artistic liberty in the aftermath of the French Revolution, provided artists and intellectuals the much needed artistic liberties to break free from the bonds of tradition that had hitherto ‘shackled/fettered’ the 18^th century imagination. In short, in a personal essay, the personality of the writer takes centre stage – one’s likes and dislikes, character, temperament, feelings, attitude, desires, hopes, beliefs, fantasies etc are foregrounded through the essay. As the famous critic Carl Van Doren, in his “Note on the Essay”, puts it: “An essay is a communication.. the person who communicates anything in any way must be a person. His truth must have a tone, his speech must have a rhythm which are his and solely his. His knowledge or opinions must have lain long enough inside him to have taken root there; and when they come away they must bring some of the soil clinging to them”.

The essence of the personal essay consists in its conversational tone, and its truthfulness to the subject discussed, (albeit with degrees of exaggeration!), bordering on the self, and providing too much distraction on the way.

Apart from poetry, which is considered the crowning glory of the Age, the Romantic age was also rich in literary criticism and prose. Literary prose of the period gave a lot of importance to aesthetic autonomy of a work of art, egalitarian ideals, imaginative thinking, overtly emotional language, and uniqueness of the individual, etc. Humour, Descriptive style, reflective style, quotes and anecdotes are other features of the personal essay.

Hunt, Hazlitt, Coleridge and Lamb were not only contemporaries but also good friends who collaborated with and influenced each other.

Thomas McFarland regards Romanticism as a “great mountain range” and its various writers as different peaks in that range. “Lamb, Hazlitt, and De Quincey are true “mountains” of Romanticism, rather than “foothills” (i.e., lesser, marginal writers), that are “aligned so that their perspective takes in the snow–capped peak of Coleridge!”

Among these prose giants, Charles Lamb is rightfully called the prince of essayists and the master of the personal essay, because of his capacity to develop a highly personalised narrative style through his ‘literary alter ego’ “Elia”.

William Zeiger in the monumental Encyclopaedia of the Essay gives a very descriptive rendering of the life and works of Lamb:

Charles Lamb worked as a clerk for a mercantile firm from the age of 17 until he retired at 50. A writer by avocation, he published poetry, a novel, two plays, critical essays, stories for children (with his sister Mary), and familiar essays.

Theme for English B – Critical Analysis

Theme for English B – Critical Analysis

Introduction:

Langston Hughes was a Harlem Renaissance poet and one of the most prominent voices in American poetry of the 20^th century. Through the poem “Theme for English B” Hughes communicates his intense paroxysm of pain and angst experienced by the black immigrants in the process of being ‘Americanised’ into the mainstream culture. By doing so, he not only challenges the concept of race and racism in America, but also the fluidity of the American identity, which is a malady, representative of the American experience in toto. He has been eulogised as a cultural icon, ‘a man lionized and venerated as the black poet laureate of the twentieth century’.

Synopsis of the Poem:

The poem discusses the predicament of the speaker, a young adult of 19 years, and the ‘only colored student’ in his English class. The teacher asks the class to “Go home and write a page that will come out of you – then it will be true’. As the only colored student in his class, he is in a double bind: he is not sure whether to write like an English student, by assuming a false persona, or to be true to his cultural heritage and ethnic affiliations, while writing the assignment. Truth for him, is a subject matter of consternation and contention, and by the end of the assignment, he has figured out for himself what is true in life!

Ethnicity and Identity:

Ethnicity refers to the identification of a particular group ‘based on a perceived cultural distinctiveness’ that makes the group into a people. This distinctiveness is believed to be

On Writing an Effective Assignment..:

PC: hartwigenglish

Dear Students, 
After having discussed with you in class today on the nuances and the dynamics involved in writing a good, effective and persuasive academic assignment, I thought it would be of immense help to you if you could read a couple of articles we (KG & SR) had written on the subject in the past. Kindly click on the link HERE

With all best wishes, 

Rufus

MIDS SEMINAR SERIES - February 2015

Topic

Occupational Segregation, Wage and Job Discrimination 

against Women in the Indian Labor Market: 1983-2012

Speakers

P. Duraisamy

Sir Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan National Fellow of ICSSR, MIDS

and

Malathy Duraisamy

Professor of Economics, IIT-M

Chairperson

Shashanka Bhide
Director, MIDS

Date & Time

 Thursday, February 5, 2015 at 03.30 p.m.

Venue

Adiseshiah Auditorium, MIDS

Laugh OK Please at Phoenix...!

Touted to be one of the best comedy festivals in Chennai, Laugh OK Please features the best of Indian stand-up talent.

The three day fiesta starts on 30 January 2015, at Phoenix Market City, Velacherry, from 7.30 pm onwards, and has performances by Jeeveshu Ahluwalia - 'the Salman Khan of the fat world', Aditi Mittal, Sorabh Pant, Karthik Kumar, Naveen Richards, etc. 

Tickets are priced between Rs.300 and Rs.600/- and can be bought at bookmyshow.com

Scholarships/Internships on Offer..:

Scholarships: Inlaks International Scholarships are given annually to support young talented people in any field of study, to broaden their vision overseas and improve their skills to operate in society. 

Scholarships are granted at top American, European and U.K. institutions. Candidates should be below 30 years of age. Scholarship covers tuition fees, living expenses and one-way travel.

Deadline for application: April 15, 2015. For details, http://inlaksfoundation.org/inlaks-scholarship.aspx

Internships: Freelance Online Cricket Writing at Sportskeeda, from the comfort of your home.

Category: Content Writing/Journalism

A Stipend of Rs.1000 to Rs.5000 per month will be provided.

Website: http://www.sportskeeda.com/writing-for-sportskeeda

Acting Workshop (Part-time)

Mirage Film Institute, T.Nagar, is conducting a month-long film acting workshop from 26 January 2015. Classes will be held on weekdays in the evenings, from 7 pm to 9 pm.

Students will be initiated into the various nuances of film acting, through exercises, games, visualisation techniques, scene improvisation, method acting, character building and acting for camera. 

There will also be a video shoot to prepare the student to face the camera.

Acting coach Jack Prabhu will be the resource person. Only limited seats available.

To register, call 99520 99040

[PC: Walnut Street Theatre]

Congrats to Poet Arundhathi Subramaniam!

Noted poet Arundhathi Subramaniam has won the inaugural Khushwant Singh Memorial Prize for Poetry for her work When God is a Traveller.

The winner was announced at a prize ceremony at the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival 2015. The award carries a cash prize of Rs.2 lakhs, and it was established by Suhel Seth in memory of the late Khushwant Singh and is open to Indian poets writing in English or Indian language translation.

Our congratulations to the poet! 

Arundhathi was here with us at the Department of English, Madras Christian College, to read out from her collection of poetry on 17 December 2012, as part of our annual 'Poetry with Prakriti' festivities.

We wish you many many more laurels in the years to come! 

Arundhathi @ MCC HERE

Eco Film Fest 2015 in Chennai

Software and More for the Visually Challenged..!

One interesting stall that caught the attention of many an inquisitive visitor at the Chennai Book Fair was Stall 48 S, that highlighted the various software available for the visually impaired. Volunteers who manned the stall, explained the various electronic facilities available for the visually challenged in the Digital Era. The Karna Vidya Technology Centre, with the patronage of the Rotaract Club of Drishti, gives counselling for free to all those who visit its stall. 

They give a demonstration on the DAISY software, [Digitally Accessible Information System] where voice and words synchronise, port, and read aloud in the best and easily accessible way, is a very interactive software for the visually challenged. Apart from this, there are thousands of Digital EBooks available exclusively for the visually challenged, and the availability of Talkback software for androids and tablets, and learning devices like Math pads, Braille pads, etc. 

For more details, you may contact: 

K. Raghuraman

Karna Vidya Technology Centre

RR Toweres III, Thiru-Vi-Ka Industrial Estate

Guindy, Chennai – 600 032

Mobile: 9840018012/9840667984

Email: kvtc.chennai@gmail.com

Chennai Book Fair 2015

The previous edition of the Chennai Book Fair was way better at crowd and parking management, if the 4 ‘P’s [parking lots/pollution control/public toilets//police presence] statistics were taken as an indication. 

A quick look to the right of this blog would give a snap of the parking lot last year, which was managed effectively by the police personnel who manned the entire parking bays. This year, since the parking bay had by now been turned into a playing court, parking was more chaotic than last year! Adding to the woes, the pathways and the stall venues, especially the food courts, were filled with pollution (both air and land!!!), and very little was done to keep pollution under check, as was done in the previous editions of the Fair.

Crowd management wasn’t that effective too, as police personnel were thinly deployed, compared to last year! Rising number of food courts is testimony to the fact that, people come to the fair for a sort of comprehensive package – food for the mind as well as for the body!

Cleaning equipment, designed by some dynamic novices, [maybe as part of their project work in final year engineering], was up for sale, and the equipment, the size of a huge pen, could be fitted in any used MNC Cola drinks pet bottles! Many who passed by these equipments, had more of a smile on their faces on the novel find, than wanting to go for it!

Indeed, right from Arabian nuts to soap bubble toys, you have them all there!

Yet another glorious chapter in Literature Unfolds...

Eleanor Catton, Winner of the Booker in conversation...

Well, yes... Yet another glorious chapter in literature unfolded today at 9.40 am at Harrington Road, Chetpet, Chennai. 

The fifth edition of The Hindu Lit for Life 2015 was inaugurated by one of the most venerated and renowned post-Independence Novelists in English - Nayantara Sahgal. Speaking on the occasion, Nayantara gave out a strongly-worded message in support of freedom of expression: “Let me just endorse what Nirmala has just said. If this kind of intimidation and bullying goes on there will be no more literary festivals of this caliber. Firstly I would like to see the formation of a union  or  common platform for writers and concerned citizens to come together to speak in support of writers who are in danger and have been intimidated by fringe groups, as in the recent case of Murugan Perumal’”.

The first session of the fest saw Eleanor Catton, the youngest recipient of the Booker Prize in conversation with Parvathi Nayar.

Introducing Eleanor as an outstanding writer who weaves complex, divergent and experimental themes in every strand of her writing, Parvathi Nayar set the ball rolling by asking her about how life had changed after becoming an acknowledged celebrity author, and how she felt being catapulted to the limelight all of a sudden, and what’s really changed after the Booker. Eleanor said: “Well, it was indeed a curious thing to suddenly be in the public eye for which I was unprepared for!”

Reading out a passage from her first novel The Rehearsal, the youngest Booker Prize winner said that, the novel is thoroughly experimental by nature, and as someone who’s working on the fringes, dealing with the extraordinary was something I thoroughly enjoyed!” Narrating the birth of the novel, and how it was originally meant out to be a play, she said that, it started as a monologue for a saxophone player, a friend of hers, and later, as life got in the way, she thought it would be much interesting as a piece of fiction than as a play. The feminist performance theory that makes up the gamut of the novel was something she came across as a result of her first introduction to feminism in University. She said:

Nayantara Sahgal in conversation 

“After I finished the book I could see that, the book became a kinda theatre of its own. Moreover, issues dealt with, in the book, are concerns that affected me as an individual. For example, when you reach puberty, you become your own audience, self-conscious, and the experience of being a teen was absolutely enigmatic. I always wanted to be somebody outside of my own skin, and always conscious of being watched!”

Workshop on Publishing & Copy Editing: A Report

A Workshop on Copy Editing and Publishing, was organised by Chevalier T. Thomas Elizabeth College for Women, on 09 January 2015. The workshop threw light on the various facets of publishing and copyediting, with interesting inputs by distinguished veterans in the field, Mrs.Nalini Olivannan, Director, Emerald Publications, and Mrs.Nandhini Iyengar, Senior Copy Editor with Oxford University Press. 

Dr. Nalini Olivannan

The various aspects of Publishing starting from Commissioning, where the publisher decides on the need for a particular book and approaches a writer for the same, to the process of Editing, Production, Marketing, Distribution and Sales were touched upon with illustrations from each domain. 

Mrs. Nalini also elaborated on the book-editing process, and stressed upon the need for the writer-editor sync' which is instrumental for the book to see the light of day in the shortest possible time. 

After the publisher sends it to their Editorial team (who are a list of subject experts), to see if the content of the book fits into their publishing programme, it is then sent to the Developmental Edit section, where the content is developed and sifted for errors. From here, it goes on to the Illustrations department, followed by the line-edit, and then the final manuscript is drawn up. 

A Noble and Laudable Initiative...!

Vehicles – two wheelers and four, of all hues and shades, lined up or rather clogged up the entrance to Hotel Savera, Mylapore, Chennai, on the eventful morning of 07 January 2015. We were a tad late to the programme, and hence we had to squeeze our car in, mustering all the driving skills at our command, to masterfully manoeuvre within the pretty decent car parking lot at our disposal.

Making our way to the first floor of the grand Hotel which houses (or hotels) the Conference Halls we were ushered in by pleasant  and hospitable receptionists who got us our elegantly designed Delegate Badges and professionally made Office files.

It was indeed a packed hall with a beehive of academic activity, with the who’s who of academia being present in full strength.

Symposium in Progress

Teachers, Professors, Headmasters, Principals from various parts of the City and from the State – name them, and they were there. The reason was not hard to seek. They had all come by the dozen to witness and to cheer a noble endeavour from the portals of St. John’s Rajakumar Education and Research Trust: the establishment of a Centre for Teacher Empowerment on St. John’s Public School Campus in order to train inadequate candidates/teachers and empower them with the required skill set, competency and temperament. Academia was there in time (9.30 am) for the Educational Symposium on the theme “Teacher Excellence – School Excellence”.

The programme was divided into two sessions, and the members of the audience were indeed spell-bound by the commitment shown by the visionaries par excellence on the dais, who set paradigms of excellence for the teaching fraternity to emulate and to strive for, in their roles as dispellers of ignorance and nurturers of budding talents.

Dr. Latha Pillai

Rarely does one come across a Centre for Teacher Empowerment, especially in a developing country like India, wherein Teacher Training Institutes have mushroomed in every nook and corner, giving their candidates a richly made up Degree, sans the required skill base. Hence, the real challenge lies, not only in dutifully obtaining a degree in teacher training, but also in the ability to translate competence into performance, or rather, from being competence-based teachers to being performance-driven teachers!

Therein lies the phenomenal success of St. John’s Centre for Teacher Empowerment…!

New Year Greetings..

Dear Students, Colleagues, Friends and Well-wishers,

Wish you a very Happy and Prosperous New Year 2015.

Best and regards,

Rufus

MIDS Monthly Seminar - December 2014

Topic	Urbanization and Governance in China and India: Informal Settlements, Land Disputes, and Citizen Rights
Speaker	Dr. Xuefei Ren Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Global Urban Studies Program, Michigan State University
Chairperson	Dr. M. Vijayabaskar Assistant Professor MIDS
Date & Time	December 18, 2014     Thursday     3.00 p.m.
Venue	Adiseshiah Auditorium, MIDS

Submission of Essays - Reg

Dear Students of I MA English Literature,

I haven’t forgotten the deadline! J 

And, a big thank you to all of you who’ve submitted your essays online to me. 

Others, who haven’t, please do submit the same by 19 December 2014 to my mail id at rufusonline@gmail.com 

For those of you who are yet to get your topics, contact your class representative Ms. Hela rightaway.

Thank you so much.

God bless.

Rufus

Dr.Juneja on Canadian Literary Culture

'The Colloquium' in Progress

Dr. Joe addressing our students on Theory

The first part of Dr.Joe's lecture was on traditional criticism, and the second part was an overview of the theoretical underpinnings of modern and contemporary literary theory.

Excerpts from his lecture:

Literary History is an irreconcilable binary of theory. M. H. Abrams who is the Father figure of Liberal Humanism, in his famous work The Mirror and the Lamp, brings out the four coordinates of criticism corresponding with four theories.

The first coordinate relates to the primacy of the Universe as the source (or fountainhead) of literature. It was Plato who first talked about the mimetic theory in literature. The word Mimesis is a Greek word meaning imitation. The world that we look around is not real. There is an ideal world – a prototype. So, writers imitate this world (the prototype).

Guest Lecture Invite...:

for two lectures in a row, by two eminent scholars
on Saturday, 09 August 2014.

Dr. Daniel David speaks on 

Myth, Legend and Romance from 9:30 am - 10:45 am.

After a short break for tea and interaction, the second session by 

Dr. Sivaraman, on 

Contemporary Indian Theatre, will start at 11:00 am and end by 12:30 pm. 

All UG, PG, MPhil and PhD Students are welcome...!

"To Write is to Know Who You Are...!"

Mr.Bishwananth Ghosh, Senior Editor, The Hindu, releasing Eclectic Representations

Mr. Bishwanath Ghosh, Senior Editor with The Hindu, was the chief guest at the inaugural of the English Literary Forum, today at 11 am. The occasion saw the release of the seventh issue of Eclectic Representations, the peer-reviewed International Journal from the PG & Research Department of English, Madras Christian College. In addition, a book that guides in effective preparation for UGC-NET-ENGLISH, containing a descriptive overview of literatures in English, alongside a detailed analysis of the previous years’ question papers [paper II & III], titled NET... SET… GO: Literatures in English was released by our Bursar.  

Excerpts from his address: 

Writing is not a glamorous profession. Rather, it is a lonely profession – wherein you might have a deadline staring at you, prompting you to be prepared all along! If you’re lucky enough, you’ll get published, and if you’re still lucky, you’ll also get to be famous!

Release of Seventh Issue of Eclectic Representations and NET Preparatory Book

Our Bursar, releasing the first copy of the UGC English Preparatory Book "NET SET GO... Literatures in English"