Annoucement for all PART - II ENGLISH STUDENTS of my classes,

In lieu of Department Festivities and related events in the Department of English, slated for 01 MARCH & 02 MARCH, all General English (Part - II ) Classes, stand cancelled for these two days. So kindly make a note of it, and enjoy the leisure hours creatively.
Regards,
Rufus

For the kind attention of III BA English Litt Students,

An exhaustive compendium of resources abridged to twenty pages, has been given to Judith and Melbin of your class, for distribution and photostat purposes. You are expected to read through the materials provided, and come out with your own observations [CRITICAL & LATERAL] for further deliberations in class. The final phase of critical material will be given shortly.
Regards,
Rufus

An Overview of Grammar and Linguistics - Phase - I

"II. Elements of Grammar"
Randolph Quirk & Sidney Greenbaum
[notes by Pat Conner]
FIVE ELEMENTS OF GRAMMAR
• PARTS OF A SENTENCE
• PARTS OF SPEECH
• STATIVE AND DYNAMIC
• PRO-FORMS
• QUESTION AND NEGATION

You should note first of all that we're primarily concerned here with the grammar of the structure we call a sentence. Most scholars of language agree that the sentence is the basic unit of human languages, although we sometimes argue about just what constitutes a sentence. There are rules for the way we choose and combine the sounds in our language (the study of this is called phonology); there rules for the way groups of sounds combine to make up meaningful units in words (we call this morphology); there are rules for how all of these must be mapped out into a sentence. (This we call syntax.) The five sections we're given to represent the elements of grammar in fact represent what might be called syntactic domains. Each of these is addressed under each element

• PARTS OF A SENTENCE

o This is the domain of the functional parts of a sentence: subject, predicate, complement, object, etc. If we were building a house, the parts of the sentence would be the walls, the doorways, the windows, the roof, and other integral parts.
 subject and predicate
 operator, auxiliary, and predication
 range of operators
 an "operator" is that part of the verb phrase which is handled in different ways, depending on whether you're asking a questions, making a statement, etc. If you have to supply one, you use "do."
 sentence elements
 subject
 verb
 complement
 object
 adverbial
 complements and objects
 objects fill out verbs. Ordinarily, you can't merely "hit"; you have to hit something. That something is the object. Complements, on the other hand, fill out (or complete) nouns.


• PARTS OF SPEECH

o The parts of speech are the minimal building blocks of the parts of the sentence. Subjects, predicates, complements, objects, all make use of these building blocks in prescribed ways. If we were building a house, the parts of speech would be bricks, two-by-fours, tar paper, 4 x 8 sheets of plywood, and other bits which can be fashioned into wall and doors and steps.
 A list parts of speech
 Open class items
 noun
 adjective
 adverb
 verb
 Closed system items
 article
 demonstrative
 pronoun
 preposition
 conjunction
 interjection (really a closed system?)

• STATIVE AND DYNAMIC

o This is the first domain of transformation in which we see a sentence shifting the way items are regarded. On the edge of a soccer field in Cambridge, England, there is a little square building which used to be a public toilets; now it is a bicycle shop. Just as buildings can shift greatly the context in which we consider them, so sentences can do the same things by moving between the stative and dynamic.

• PRO-FORMS

o This is the domain of substitution and compression. Once a speaker has acquainted the hearer with a clear concept, that concept can be signaled through the use of a small number of words. I cannot think of a good analogy to this in the non-linguistic world, but it may be like a computer program which "compresses" a file to make it smaller in such a way that another computer can guess what has been removed from what is present and thus reconstitute the program. It is part of the power of language that we have to stretch so far for an analogy.

• QUESTION AND NEGATION

o This is the domain known as displacement or the ability to consider subjects which are not present and which may not exist or to deny what someone else has asserted.
 Wh-questions
 Yes-no questions
 negation and non-assertion (be sure to understand the chart at 2.20.

Main verbs have meaning on their own (unlike helping verbs). There are thousands of main verbs, and we can classify them in several ways:

Transitive and intransitive verbs

A transitive verb takes a direct object: Somebody killed the President. An intransitive verb does not have a direct object: He died. Many verbs, like speak, can be transitive or intransitive. Look at these examples:
transitive:
• I saw an elephant.
• We are watching TV.
• He speaks English.
intransitive:
• He has arrived.
• John goes to school.
• She speaks fast.

Linking verbs

A linking verb does not have much meaning in itself. It "links" the subject to what is said about the subject. Usually, a linking verb shows equality (=) or a change to a different state or place (>). Linking verbs are always intransitive (but not all intransitive verbs are linking verbs).
• Mary is a teacher. (mary = teacher)
• Tara is beautiful. (tara = beautiful)
• That sounds interesting. (that = interesting)
• The sky became dark. (the sky > dark)
• The bread has gone bad. (bread > bad)

Dynamic and stative verbs

Some verbs describe action. They are called "dynamic", and can be used with continuous tenses. Other verbs describe state (non-action, a situation). They are called "stative", and cannot normally be used with continuous tenses (though some of them can be used with continuous tenses with a change in meaning).

dynamic verbs (examples):
• hit, explode, fight, run, go

stative verbs (examples):
• be
• like, love, prefer, wish
• impress, please, surprise
• hear, see, sound
• belong to, consist of, contain, include, need
• appear, resemble, seem

Regular and irregular verbs

This is more a question of vocabulary than of grammar. The only real difference between regular and irregular verbs is that they have different endings for their past tense and past participle forms. For regular verbs, the past tense ending and past participle ending is always the same: -ed. For irregular verbs, the past tense ending and the past participle ending is variable, so it is necessary to learn them by heart.

regular verbs: base, past tense, past participle
• look, looked, looked
• work, worked, worked

irregular verbs: base, past tense, past participle
• buy, bought, bought
• cut, cut, cut
• do, did, done

Here are lists of regular verbs and irregular verbs.

Often the above divisions can be mixed. For example, one verb could be irregular, transitive and dynamic; another verb could be regular, transitive and stative.

These meaning-based categories have grammatical implications for our students, too. Perhaps not as challenging for most students as the generic/specific use of nouns and articles, but important nevertheless.

Stative vs. Dynamic is a way of classifying different types of verbs--or at least different meanings that verbs can have. Stative refers to "state of being" rather than "action." For example, sentences with be are descriptions of states of being rather than of activities: She is a teacher. He is a sociologist. Dynamic refers to "actions" and "activity" in verb meanings: He walks to class. They eat lunch in the cafeteria. The contrast is often used in ESL/EFL to help students understand why they can or cannot use a progressive verb form. That is, progressive verbs refer to actions rather than states of being. That's why this sentence is wrong: *They are knowing English very well. The verb know generally is used for a "state of being" rather than an action, and so it can't be used in the progressive form (most of the time).

This meaning has been overgeneralized a bit in ESL/EFL materials where we have lists of verbs divided into groups of Stative Verbs and Dynamic Verbs. Here's the actual situation: some verbs are just about always used for stative meanings; some verbs are just about always used for dynamic meanings; but...verbs can be switched from one class to the other for special purposes. For example, verbs like taste or smell can be either actions or states of being: He was tasting the soup for salt when he dropped the box of salt in the pan. The soup tastes pretty salty now.

Assertive vs. Nonassertive is a way of talking about the difference between positive sentences and related negative sentences and questions. The idea is that positive sentences "assert" something while negative sentences and questions do not.

Assertive Examples

They have been to France already
They had some French bread for dinner
They saw somebody running out of the restaurant.

Nonassertive Examples

They haven't been to Egypt yet.
They haven't had any Egyptian bread yet.
Did they have any French wine?
Did they see anybody they recognized?

Pro-forms & Ellipsis

Here we just need to notice three things for now:
1. Pro-forms is a category that includes pronouns and pro-verbs. (I know, but it's true that in a question like What did he do? the word do is called a pro-verb that stands in the place of a verb with real meaning.)
2. Ellipsis is the leaving out of words. In the following sentence, the phrase "go to Egypt" is not repeated but is understood: They will go to Egypt, and I will, too.
3. Pro-forms and ellipsis are often talked about together because they have similar functions in context. They are both ways of repeating things without repeating them exactly. And they are both ways of tying sentences together in larger units.

He will study sociology next semester.
The first auxiliary is used to form the negative and the question. That first auxiliary is called the operator

Negative
He won't study sociology next semester

Notes for II B.A/B.Sc/B.Com - [Nov - April] - Semester - IV..:

THE WORLD IS TOO MUCH WITH US

Introduction:

"The world is too much with us" is a sonnet by the English Romantic poet William Wordsworth. In it, Wordsworth criticizes the modern world for being absorbed in materialism and distancing itself from nature. This Italian sonnet is the Romantic cry of a speaker who wants it both ways: he wants to be a pagan, yet still retain his enlightenment values.

Conflict between Nature and Humanity:

Wordsworth longs for a much simpler time when the progress of humanity was tempered by the restrictions nature imposed.
Man lacks proper gratitude for nature. People often are blind to nature's great beauty. "It moves us not," says Wordsworth. Many people never see a sunrise or a sunset because we are too concerned with the hustle and bustle of our tiny worlds to appreciate the opulence around us. We don't recognize the creation that God has bestowed upon us, and hence there is a conflict between Man and Nature. Wordsworth is saying that we have sold our souls in order to make other things (money, worldly possessions, and careers) more important than the value of life. Man's only desire in life is to devour all that is around us, no matter what effect it has on nature.

The Octave - “Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
According to this speaker steeped in the romantic notions of nature as god, the world has become too much for us because we are so busy working to get money to buy things that we have little time for nature and our souls. The credulous speaker asserts, “We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!” Yet, the speaker still has the power and the heart to recognize that “This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon, / The winds that will be howling at all hours, / And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers.” Such an observation and the ability to express it so gracefully belies the next complaining line, ”For this, for everything, we are out of tune.

There are always those who are “out of tune” with nature and the spiritual life, and even before the onslaught of the dreadful Industrial Revolution, there was the process of getting and spending, and most of the getters and spenders would have been oblivious to nature and would have failed to walk a spiritual path. But the speaker is upset that the factories being built to make need items are blighting the natural world and occupying too much of the individual’s time. Therefore, he sings his little song decrying the revolution

The Sestet – “It moves us not. —Great God:
The speaker shouts that nature, the Sea, the moon, the winds do not any longer have the ability to stir men’s souls as they once did, and the speaker wishes he had been born during ancient times. But, of course, the speaker has only experienced these ancient paganistic times through reading and studying books. He wishes he could have been a Pagan who was raised to believe that he could see “Proteus rising from the sea.” And if he had learned about the Greek gods instead of learning about Christ, he would have been able to “hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

Although the speaker’s wish is absurd and illogical, the reader can understand his complaints and realize that his romanticism blinds him to logic. And who can argue with the wishes of another, even when we see how distorted they may be? Such a speaker as the one of this poem still professes a pride that is unmistakable: he is learnèd as he would never have been as pagan, and his cry to “Great God” demonstrates his own true spiritual path that is grounded in post-enlightenment Christianity.

Conclusion:
In conclusion, Wordsworth says that we have put manmade goals ahead of the value of life. We should better appreciate nature and the environment. On the whole, this sonnet offers an angry summation of the familiar Wordsworthian theme of communion with nature, and states precisely how far the early nineteenth century was from living out the Wordsworthian ideal.

********************************************************************************
AN IRISH AIRMAN FORESEES HIS DEATH

Introduction:

The aviator, of whom Yeats writes as in the first person, is convinced that the flight he is about to take will be his last, and he thinks of why he has chosen to fly. He flies for different reasons than most, not out of sense of duty or patriotism, nor for prestige or for those he has left behind. He reasons that he made his decision on the basis that his life so far has been wasted, and can see nothing to convince him that his life to come will be any better, and thus that it is better to enjoy the present, whatever the consequence.

About the Speaker and Setting:

This poem is recited in first person. The poet is recounting the thoughts that are going through his mind as his death approaches. This choice of voice is important because it gives insight into the thoughts of the airman fighting on the verge of death.

Setting:

This poem takes place around 1916 during one of the Irish civil wars in the skies over Ireland. The mood and atmosphere created by Yeats is of a solemn, peaceful tone. The pilot sees his death forthcoming yet he does not seem regretful or scared, but rather accepts the fate he is going to encounter

The Poet’s Vision of Death:

This simple poem is one of Yeats's most explicit statements about the First World War, and illustrates both his active political consciousness ("Those I fight I do not hate, / Those I guard I do not love") and his increasing propensity for a kind of hard-edged mystical rapture (the airman was driven to the clouds by "A lonely impulse of delight"). The poem, which, like flying, emphasizes balance, essentially enacts a kind of accounting, whereby the airman lists every factor weighing upon his situation and his vision of death, and rejects every possible factor he believes to be false: he does not hate or love his enemies or his allies, his country will neither be benefited nor hurt by any outcome of the war, he does not fight for political or moral motives but because of his "impulse of delight"; his past life seems a waste, his future life seems that it would be a waste, and his death will balance his life.

Conclusion:

This poem captures the essence of the mind set of a airman facing death. This insight is what makes the poem memorable. This poem is about an Irish airman pilot fighting in the war awaiting his death. He is prepared for death because after reflecting on his life he realizes that it has been a waste of time. This is reflected in the quote, "A waste of breath the years behind / In balance with this life, this death.

********************************************************************************

THE THOUGHT FOX

Introduction:

The Thought Fox is a poem about writing a poem. It has often been acknowledged as one of the most completely realised and artistically satisfying of the poems of Ted Hughes.

Subject of the Poem:

The poet is sitting in a room late at night, it’s dark outside and though he can’t see anything he senses a presence:
Something else is alive
Beside the clocks loneliness
And this blank page where my fingers move

This presence is in the poet’s imagination, as you find out in the very first line:
”I imagine this midnight moments forest:”
It immediately shows a contrast between the first two lines. The first line takes place in the ‘real world’, then, we enter the realm of the poet’s imagination.

An idea stirring in the deep dark night of the poet’s mind and it is represented by a fox. This fox is present in the midnight forest inside the poet’s head; That "dark hole" is such a great metaphor for the empty mind of a writer seeking inspiration.

The fox in the poem emerges indistinctly from the forest and falling snow, one step at a time, seeking what cover it can find, lame from some trap it has barely survived. But the forest at midnight is also the time when the stranglehold of culture and rational intellect is at its weakest, can be, with sufficient courage, momentarily shed. The ‘clearing’ made by the poet’s openness and receptivity emboldens the fox to assume its confident, brilliant foxhood, to come about its own business, and to enter in safety its true home, the ‘dark hole of the head’.

Ted Hughes has shown us, a man in harmony with nature and his own mind. That he loves and respects both is evident throughout, and the result proves how they inspire him. Here is a poem that is an exultant affirmation of what man and nature are capable of creating, bringing everything together in triumph. "The page is printed" says it so perfectly.

Conclusion:

The Thought Fox contained what became one of Hughes's most famous images, an emblem of the ferocity of his own poetry: an idea entering the head with the violence of an animal, the "sudden sharp hot stink of fox". These rapturous encounters with nature's claws and teeth showed Hughes to be the finest English nature poet of his generation.

********************************************************************************

Dear Students of II BA English, The next list of Rhetoricians...!

Due to paucity of time, we will be doing A PASSAGE TO INDIA in as soon a time as possible. So you are expected to bring along with you the material which has been photostat and made available to you through your Class Representative, and dont forget the fact that, it is absolutely crucial that you read well, take notes and have questions and comments prepared; and that you bring printed copies of the readings to class so that we can examine each text closely and critically.

Those of you who have to complete their elocution for RHETORIC, please look at your order of presentation which goes as follows:

1. Rita
2. Steffy
3. Vedavalli
4. Kali Shekar
5. Karthik Varma
6. Koruth Cherian

PS: In the event of a student absenting himself/herself on the day of his/her presentation, he/ she forfeits his/her chance, and on no occasion will a second chance be given. So Carpe diem...! ALL THE BEST...!

Prize distribution - phase - I today:

Dear Students of I PBT & Zoology,

Hope you benefitted immensely from the lecture of Prof.Daniel David, a great scholar and a wizard of sort, to whom there is no boundary to the world of knowledge.

Congrats to all the prize winners, and the Outstanding Person of the Class Mr. Naga Venkat.

A second list of prize winners and a suspense package of Prize winners is on its way. Gear up for another great lecture by Mr Barry, from University of Fudan, very soon. So dont miss out on classes.

Regards and all best wishes,
Rufus

The traits of Noble minds: Their Magnanimity 💚

Value to Science ❤️

Since I am in the midst students, here at MCC, I thought of sharing with you an incident about Sir CV Raman – a Nobel Laureate in Physics for discovering Raman Effect. 

Raman gives the view that the colour of sky is blue due to molecular diffraction which determines the observed luminosity and in great measures also its color. This led to the birth of the Raman Effect.

Raman was in the first batch of Bharat Ratna Award winners. The award ceremony was to take place in the last week of January, soon after the Republic Day celebrations of 1954. 

The then President Dr. Rajendra Prasad wrote to Raman inviting him to be the personal guest in the Rashtrapati Bhavan, when Raman came to Delhi for the award ceremony. Sir CV Raman wrote a polite letter, regretting his inability to go.

Raman had a noble reason for his inability to attend the investiture ceremony. He explained to the President that he was guiding a Ph.D. student and that thesis was positively due by the last day of January. 

The student was valiantly trying to wrap it all up and Raman felt, he had to be by the side of the research student, see that the thesis was finished, sign the thesis as the guide and then have it submitted.

Here was a scientist who gave up the pomp of a glittering ceremony associated with the highest honour, because he felt that his duty required him to be by the side of the student. It is this unique trait of giving value to science that builds science.

Scientific Magnanimity ❤️

Now, I would like to narrate an incident which took place during a function conferring Nobel Laureate Prof. Norman E Borlaug, a well known agricultural scientist and a partner in India’s first Green revolution, with Dr. M S Swaminathan Award, at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi on the 15th of March 2005.

Prof. Borlaug, at the age of 91, was in the midst of all the praise showered on him from everybody gathered there. 

When his turn came, he got up and highlighted India’s advancement in the agricultural science and production and said that the political visionary Shri C. Subramaniam and Dr. M S Swaminathan, pioneer in agricultural science were the prime architects of First Green Revolution in India.

Even though Prof Norman Borlaug was himself a partner in the first green revolution, he did not make a point on this. He recalled with pride, Dr. Verghese Kurien who ushered White Revolution in India.

Then the surprise came. He turned to scientists sitting in the third row, fifth row and eighth row of the audience. 

He identified Dr. Raja Ram, a wheat specialist, Dr S K Vasal, a maize specialist, Dr. B. R. Barwale, a seed specialist. 

He said, all these scientists had contributed for India’s and Asia’s agricultural science. Dr. Borlaug introduced them to the audience by asking them to stand and ensured that the audience cheered and greeted the scientists with great enthusiasm.

This action of Dr. Norman Borlaug, I call it as “Scientific Magnanimity”.

Friends, if we aspire to achieve great things in life, we need Scientific Magnanimity to focus the young achievers.

It is my experience that great mind and great heart go together. This Scientific Magnanimity will motivate the scientific community and nurture team spirit.

Conclusion ❤️

With this background of unique traits of great minds, dear young friends, now it is time for all of you to have a great dream in life, dream transforms into thoughts and thoughts result into action. Now I would like to administer an oath on courage:

COURAGE

Courage to think different,

Courage to invent,

Courage to discover the impossible,

Courage to travel into an unexplored path,

Courage to share the knowledge

Courage to remove the pain

Courage to reach the unreached

Courage to combat the problems And Succeed,

Are the unique qualities of the youth.

As a youth of my nation, I will work and work with courage to achieve success in all my missions.

My congratulations to all the graduates who are passing out from Madras Christian College. My best wishes to all the members of Madras Christian College in their mission of providing quality education and capacity building among the youth of Chennai and the adjoining districts.

May God bless you.

Text of Dr APJ Kalam's Speech at the MCC convocation

CONVOCATION ADDRESS AT THE MADRAS CHRISTIAN COLLEGE, CHENNAI, TAMIL NADU

23-02-2007 : Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Our Mission: Capacity Building for Societal Transformation

Learning gives creativity
Creativity leads to thinking

I am delighted to participate in the Convocation Function of the Madras Christian College. It gives me great pleasure to be here in this College which has completed hundred and seventy years of service in meeting the educational needs of the students of Tamil Nadu. The College has implemented the choice based credit system which enables the students to pursue the courses in which he has special aptitude which will definitely enable him to achieve excellence in the selected area.

I take this opportunity to congratulate all the teachers, students and staff of this College and all those who have contributed in promoting good educational standards in this college during the last seventeen decades. I am very happy to see the mission statement of Madras Christian College, that the college is focusing on education with career training and value system for meeting the needs of our nation. My greetings to all of you. Today I would like to share with you few thoughts on “Our Mission: Capacity Building for Societal Transformation”.

Capacity Building

A good educational model is the need of the hour to ensure that the students grow to contribute towards the economic growth of a nation. Normally, research, technology and performance in the three sectors namely agriculture, manufacturing and services lead to economic growth and prosperity of the nation. Can we sow the seeds of capacity building among the students? There will be continuous innovation during the learning process. To realize this, special capacities are required to be built in education system for nurturing the students. The capacities which are required to be built are research and enquiry, creativity and innovation, use of high technology, entrepreneurial and moral leadership.

Research and enquiry: The 21st century is about the management of all the knowledge and information we have generated and the value addition we bring to it. We must give our students the skills with which they find a way through the sea of knowledge that we have created and continue with life long learning. Today, we have the ability, through technology, to really and truly teach ourselves to become the life-long learners. This is required for sustained economic development.

Creativity and innovation: The management of knowledge in the 21st century is beyond the capacity of a single individual. The amount of information that we have around is overwhelming. The management of knowledge therefore must move out of the realm of the individual and shift into the realm of the networked groups. The students must learn how to manage knowledge collectively. When the information is networked the power and utility of the information grows as square as stated by Metcalfe's law. Information that is static does not grow. In the new digital economy information that is circulated creates innovation and contributes to national wealth.

Capacity to use high technology: Every student in our colleges should learn to know how to use the latest technologies for aiding their learning process. should equip themselves with adequate computing equipment, laboratory equipment, and Internet facilities and provide an environment for the students to enhance their learning ability. In the midst of all of the technological innovations and revolutions we cannot think that the role of the teachers will be diminished. In fact the teacher will become even more important and the whole world of education will become teacher assisted and would help in “tele-porting” the best teacher to every nook and corner of the country and propagate the knowledge. There is a great opportunity and need for content generation in many fields of education which can be used in Madras Christian College, but also in other colleges in the state or in the country. I personally believe that content generation in the multimedia mode is very important.

Entrepreneurship: The aptitude for entrepreneurship should be cultivated right from the beginning and in the College environment. We must teach our students to take calculated risks for the sake of larger gain, but within the ethos of good business. They should also cultivate a disposition to do things right. This capacity will enable them to take up challenging tasks later.

Moral leadership: Moral leadership involves two aspects. First it requires the ability to have compelling and powerful dreams or visions of human betterment. Moral leadership requires a disposition to do the right thing and influence others also to do right things. In sum, inquiry, creativity, technology, entrepreneurial and moral leadership are the five capacities required to be built through the education process. If we develop in all our students these five capacities, we will produce “Autonomous Learner” a self-directed, self controlled, lifelong learner who will have the capacity to both, respect authority and at the same time is capable of questioning authority, in an appropriate manner. These are the leaders who would work together as a “Self-organizing Network” and transform any State as a prosperous State. The most important part of the education is to imbibe the confidence among the students is the spirit of “we can do it”. These capacities will enable the students to meet the challenges of our national mission of transforming the nation into a developed country. I would like to share with you my thoughts on the ambience in 2020.

Ambience in 2020

If we perform in an integrated way with development politics as the focus, in mission mode with transparency,

I visualize even before the year 2020, a prosperous India is possible. We expect the people below poverty line to come to near zero and our literacy must be nearly 100%.

Human Development Index of India will be less than 50 against the present 127.

Every Indian will have either a good university degree or quality training with globally competitive employable vocational skill.

E-governance would be in position for all Government to Government (G2G) and Government to Citizens (G2C) transactions making the governance system transparent with National ID card in position.

Tele-density will reach over 75%. All our villages will have reliable, uninterrupted quality electric power supply.

The interlinking of the rivers and water bodies and use of technology for water collection, water recycling and water management will result in equitable distribution of water for drinking, irrigation, industry, navigation and as natural beauty.

There will be no shortage of water in any part of the country nor there will be disasters due to floods, water logging etc.

India would have realized energy security and will be working towards energy independence.

Good sanitation facilities will be available at homes in every part of India and for all Indians and tourists.

We will be using more of renewable energy such as solar energy, wind power, bio-mass, mini and micro Hydel and thorium based nuclear reactors, adding less to the pollution.

Through responsive and innovative venture capital systems and entrepreneurial training both in schools and colleges, we will have more enterprises leading to large number of employment generators rather than employment seekers.

A pro-active healthcare system delivered through innovative schemes will provide quality healthcare access at an affordable cost to all the people of the country including those living in remote areas.

Everyone will have an opportunity to take up and complete courses of choice in higher education.

I am sure you will all see prosperity in the country, which will replace scarcity and control.

In addition to the above economic, social and human development, India will also have a visible global presence in strategic sectors and will contribute to world peace.

All our technological and economical advances while enhancing our prosperity would embed our value system derived from our civilizational heritage.

This unique combination will make our growth robust and sustainable and will lead to a peaceful, secure, happy and prosperous society.

With the capacity built by Madras Christian College, I am sure you will definitely be able to become partners many of the missions leading to developed India by 2020 based on your specialization.

The nation needs persons of great heart, knowledge and above all capacity to share the knowledge and courage to meet the problems and succeed.

Hence, I would like to share with you the uniqueness of two great minds, both of them Nobel Laureates, each one having a special trait which he symbolizes.

They are Value of Science and Scientific Magnanimity.

Friends, if you acquire any of one of them or both of them, you will be heading towards becoming a Nobel Laureate or you will make a difference to our Planet. Let us go into details. More in the previous blogpost HERE.

Dr.Kalam's Vision 2020 for India... 28th Convocation speech by a Visionary Scientist...!

When Dr. Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, rose to give his Convocation address, the thunderous ovation and the deafening applause that he received bore immense testimony to the fact that he was the don in the minds of the student community - a role model - a youth icon - a visionary par excellence for us to emulate.

His lovli speech centred on a call to the Youth of MCC, by administering an oath of Courage, and also called upon them to implement with gusto his five - point charter for Capacity Building, and the text of the speech is reproduced in the previous blog for your perusal.

Kindly click on the label 'Inspirational Post(s)' for the same.

DR APJ's FIELD DAY AT MCC...!

The College security was beefed up even days before the visit of Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam, and car passes, vehicle passes, staff passes, student passes, visitor's passes, press passes, alumni passes, student passes, resident staff passes etc etc including tress passes were in right earnest.

The First Person stuck to his punctuality. Morning i saw him live on DD addressing the beginning of the joint sitting of the two Houses of Parliament at the beginning of the budget session. Evening we at MCC had the lovli privilege of seeing the FIRST PERSON at close quarters, face to face, and this was the first time i was seeing a reigning President at close quarters.

The moment the MC asked the students and the other audience to stand up for the arrival of Dr APJ, there was a thunderous applause, and a standing ovation. For anything he said, there was a convincing applause. When the National Anthem was sung, he gestured with his hands to the students to join along.

The Man was his usual self, casual, calm, serene, composed, with not an air on him.

Dr.Ganesh who was sitting next to me, said, "Look, how innocent he looks!" He was indeed innocent and charming too.

He explained the values of science in two lovli phrases, with two lovli persons, both Nobel laureates.

One was Sir CV Raman, and the other Prof.Norman Borlaug, who partnered the first Green Revolution in India.

Raman had received the first list of Bharat Ratnas. When Dr.Rajendra Prasad, the then President of India invited him to be his personal guest, Sir.CV Raman wrote a polite letter declining his invitation, and the reason was that, he had a student to guide who was on the verge of completing his thesis. THIS IS THE TRAIT CALLED VALUE OF SCIECE, he said.

Prof.Borlaug, at a function to honour him, introduced his fellow scientists, who had also partnered along with him for the success of the Green Revolution. THIS IS SCIENTIFIC MAGNANIMITY, he said.

Amar, my student in the second year BA Class, visually challenged, made use of the opportunity to get Dr Kalam's autograph and shared a few words with the FIRST PERSON too.

Some of his golden words were:

DREAMS TRANSFER INTO THOUGHTS
THOUGHTS TRANSFER INTO ACTION
SO DREAM

He also administered an oath of courage to the students:

Courage to think different,
Courage to Invent,
Courage to discover the impossible,
Courage to travel into an unexplored path,
Courage to share knowledge
Courage to remove pain,
Courage to reach the unreached
Courage to combat the problems and succeed.
As a youth of my nation, I will work and work with courage to to achieve success in all my missions.

The full text of his Address to MCCians HERE

II CA Marks - General Course - Experience of Litt

1. Naveen Jayakumar I BCom - 28
2. Jabez, V., I B.A Pol Sc - 47
3. Jada Deepak I B.A Pol Sc - 0
4. Philve Philip I BCom (voc) - 32
5. Nisha Thomas I BCom (voc) - 52
6. Richu Mariam George I BCom (voc) - 65
7. Rahul Karmakar I BA Pol Sc - 56
8. Divya Susan Mamman I BCom (voc) - 59
9. Shobal Thomas I BCom (reg) - 34

PS: Clarifications if any, should be made before 28 February 2007

Announcement for I BSc PBT / Zoo Students

Dear Students,
Your CA Marks will be displayed on 26 February by 2 pm in this space. Corrections, if any, should be made before the start of the III C.As.

The first phase of Notes has been released. Please make it sure that you access either the hard or the soft copy, through your respective group leaders, and/or class representatives.
Regards and all best wishes,
Rufus

"Refugee, Mother and Child" - Chinua Achebe

Introduction

Chinua Achebe has written several novels and many poems. Indeed, he is considered to be one of the finest literally artists to have come out of Africa. He is a believer that all literature "should have a message, should have a purpose."

The Background for the Poem:

In 1967 civil war broke out in Nigeria when the Catholic dominated province of Biafra attempted independence from the Moslem dominated central state. During those fateful years, Achebe worked as an ambassador for the Biafran government.
The war went badly for the Biafrans who suffered immensely, and starvation was rife. The poet's firsthand experience of the hardship and struggle inspired him to write "Refugee Mother and Child".

Reference to Madonna and Child : Its Significance:

The Madonna is Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, and the Child is her son, Jesus. A statue of the Madonna holding the Infant Jesus is common in the Catholic Church. Remember that Achebe wrote this poem in the Catholic province of Biafra, where statues of the Madonna and Child would have been common.

The unavoidability of Death of the Children:

The mothers all know that their children are dying. It is what is known as a "defence mechanism" that the mothers use to protect themselves. There is nothing they can do to prevent their children from dying, and so they protect themselves from psychological destruction by giving the appearance that they no longer care. Starvation was rife in the refugee camp. Children in the camp were dying with regularity, and the mother knows that her own son would probably also soon be dead.

The Blown up Bellies of the Children:

The children are suffering from kwashiorkor, which the Oxford Dictionary describes as "a form of malnutrition caused by a protein deficiency of diet, especially in young children in the tropics". It leads the children's bellies to blow up. So these children are starving (have empty bellies) but their bellies are blown up from kwashiorkor.
Without the comma, the meaning would be that the odours were of diarrhoea from the unwashed children. By omitting the commas, the poet forces the reader to think out the meaning of his lines. He is also able to hide two or even three different meanings in each line.

Starvation at the Refugee Camp:

Starvation was rife in the refugee camp. Children in the camp were dying with regularity, and the mother knows that her own son would probably also soon be dead. The woman is watching her child dying. Her little acts of love and kindness are therefore not unlike the ritual of putting flowers on his grave.

Conclusion:

The poet is looking to an earlier life before the war broke out, a life when food was in abundance, a life when breakfast and school were an everyday event. Now there is no breakfast, no school, but only a refugee camp and death.
*****

"Journey of the Magi" - T.S.Eliot

Introduction

'Journey of the Magi' is the monologue of a man who has made his own choice. In this poem T.S.Eliot describes the quest of the Magi for the Christ child, a long arduous journey against the discouragements of nature and the hostility of man, to find at last, a mystery impenetrable to human wisdom.

A tiresome Journey – A Cold Coming:

To begin with, the journey was nothing pleasant, because they had to travel through deserts all the way - waste, barren and desolate. Nor secondly, easy either; for over the rocks and crags of both Arabias, especially Petraea, their journey lay. Exceeding dangerous, as lying through the midst of the black tents of Kedar a nation of thieves and cut-throats; to pass over the hills of robbers, infamous then, and infamous to this day. Last we consider the time of their coming, the season of the year. It was no summer progress. A cold coming they had of it at this time of the year, just the worst time of the year to take a journey, and specially a long journey in. The ways deep, the weather sharp, the days short, the sun farthest off, "the very dead of winter."

The thrill of hope:

The next segment of the poetic journey represents enlightenment and conversion. Its optimistic natural imagery of a lush valley and the trees, the old white horse running from the pasture, the vine-leaves over the door of the tavern--speak of "hope and freedom and fruitfulness" It is a pause in the second to last stage of the trail that conveys a short sense of reprieve while evoking a number of significant Christian events. As they enter the temperate valley the Magi unwittingly bring the shadow of the Cross to the stable below the star. The three trees low on the horizon signify Calvary and Jesus' death on the cross. The galloping white horse, embodies Christ's victory over death. A tavern as a place of communion with the True Vine of John over the lintel is a reminder of the blood of the Passover lamb marked by the Hebrews on the doorposts of their homes in Egypt.

Birth or Death:

T.S. Eliot examines that very question in the closing stanza in bleak and barren language. With only a guess as to what might have happened to the Magi it is no sweet Christmas musing and the words are deep with poignancy that give pause. Many years have passed and an aging Magi remembers how it was for him after the departure from Bethlehem. "Birth or Death? he asks, "I had seen birth and death, but had thought they were different." He had knelt before the Christ child leaving him rich gifts. Hence, death here signifies, arriving back in Babylonia to discover that this birth had shaken him from his comfortable ways, a death of his old man and old nature.

Conclusion:

Eliot opened with contrition in stanza one, moved on to satisfaction in stanza two, and then concluded with confession in stanza three, suggesting that the soul, in its journey towards Christ and heavenly perfection, akin to the journey of the Magi, can never rest in the certainty of perfection but must be continually engaged in the process of becoming perfect.

"Batter My Heart" - John Donne - Critical Commentary

Introduction:
Batter my Heart is Sonnet XIV in Donne’s Divine Sonnets, and it is the most famous of his sonnets. Says James Reeves, None of his poems is more characteristic than this, with its nervous jerky rhythm, it has the same intensity, the same variety of mood and experience, which characterizes Donne’s love-poetry.

The Poet’s Prayer to the Potter: (God)

The poet prays to God in His three-fold capacity as the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost to shatter his heart, as with the bows of a battering ram, and then to reshape it. The poet is such a hardened sinner that gentler methods of persuasion would not serve any purpose in his case. Until now, God like a gentle tinker (mender of pots) has only knocked at him, blown His breath into him through His bellows, and lighted the fire of His love and Mercy to purify him and re-shape him.

But all these gentler methods have proved futile. So God should now use all his force to overthrow the poet, to overcome his stubbornness, and then to reshape and reform him.

The Poet’s Plea to God to use Force:

The poet will be redeemed from sin only when God uses all His force to break his resistances and burn out his sins. He would be redeemed only when God with all His force blows His love and mercy on him.

The Poet compared to a Town:

The poet is like a town, which owes its duty to God, its rightful owner, but it has now been illegally occupied by His enemy, the Devil. He tries his best to open the gates of the town, besieged by the Devil and his evil spirits and let God enter, but he remains helpless in his efforts. The Reasoning faculty is the Viceroy of God, but it is itself in captivity and so helpless to defend the town (the poet). In other words, Reason, the God given faculty, should have saved the poet from sin, but reason has remained helpless in this respect.

The Poet’s Wish:

Despite all his sins, the poet loves God, as a woman loves her object of love, and wishes to be loved by Him in return. But the difficulty is that, he is like a woman married to the Devil, God’s enemy, though in love with Him. The poet, therefore, prays to Him to release him from this captivity and make him a prisoner in His embrace. The poet wishes to be loved by Him and imprisoned by Him, because it is only such an imprisonment which would make him really free (from evil). He should become perfectly chaste only when God has ravished him, i.e. fully possessed by him.

Conclusion:

Such a possession of his body and soul by God would mean that he has been freed from the clutches of the Devil. Then he would be a sinner no more, but would become perfectly chaste.


*****

[With due acknowledgements to Dr.Raghukul Tilak]

Sincerity makes the very least person to be of more value... for it is the secret to success...!

The loyal 16 who will be getting a very small yet lovli prize on 19 February 2007, for their sincerity in class, and honouring the words of the Teacher, are as follows:

I BSc Pbt

1. ABINAYA, T
2. ANANTHI, R
3. ANITHA, M
4. DAISY JENNIFER, D
5. HAJJI HABEEBA BEEVI, J
6. JENITA MARY, T
7. MARY DIANA, P
8. NANCY ANTONY
9. SHEEBA JANET ANGELIN, J
10. VIJAYARANI SYINDHYA, A
11. Jittu J. Thomas
12. Nagalla Naga Venkat
13. Umeshan, T

I BSc Zoology (Reg)

1. Arun Kumar, P.K
2. Joel Singh, D
3. Vishnuashithan, S

26 February, Presentation on the Cards...

Dear Students,
The lovli presentation on International Education Prospects will be given on February 26 at 12.35 pm. Be there.
Regards,
Rufus

Last Date for Submission of Assignments - I BSc Bot / Zoo & II B.A Tam / Phil

The last date for submission of assignments for I BSc Bot / Zoo & II B.A Tam / Phil classes is on: Monday, 26 February 2007 (IV D.O) No extension whatsoever, will be given.

The first phase of Notes for II BA Tam / Phil has been released on Monday, February 5, 2007.

The first phase of Notes for I BSc Bot / Zoo will be released on Monday, 19 February 2007.

Please collect it from your class representatives or Group leaders.

Regards,
Rufus