Student Assignment:

Our journey:

On 8th January 2011, we went to the 34th Chennai Book Fair which was held at St.George’s Anglo-Indian High School, Chetpet. We four of us, (Beryl, Smita, Maxlein and Shimray) from the department of Plant Biology and Plant bio-technology went together for the book fair. We gathered in our college at 9 am and boarded our train and finally we reached Chetpet at 10.30 am. Andrew and Anoop, our friends from the department of Physics joined us from Chetpet and we all walked towards St.George’s Anglo-Indian High School. We reached the book fair at 11.15 am. We had a great time in train chatting with each other.  

In the book fair, we got our tickets after standing in a long queue, and the ticket was Rs.5 per head. We went through almost all the book stalls in search of a book that would please our heart. We loved the books of Gift book Stall, but those books would not give us sufficient information to
 do our assignment. Being science students, our mind was full on the science book stalls and we just went in to get a glance. Finally we got the book that we were searching for in the BookPoint stall. The name of the book is “Survival Strategies” by Raghavendra Gadagkar, which is totally about cooperation and conflicts in animal societies. The description of the book attracted us to give an article about it through this assignment.

Observations on the Exhibits:

When we entered the book fair, we found many stray dogs wandering around the place. The entrance could have been much broader and attractive. The place was very ugly. Many plastic bags and chocolate wrappers were scattered here and there. There were no dustbins and so the people dropped their bills here and there. There was no order in the arrangement of books in the bookstalls. People were looking so confused to find out their favourite stalls. Some of the stall keepers were not kind enough while others were so kind to explain about the books exhibited. Books were expensive. We just bought one book and its bill is enclosed in this assignment.

Description of our Favourite Stall:

We loved Gift Book Stall. It had books about weddings, dogs, aquariums, books for children, etc. Beryl was stuck up on seeing the wedding gowns pictures in the wedding book, and she thought of getting a book on dogs for her brother but it was very expensive. The book keeper moves so friendly with us. Then we moved on to the Bookpoint stall, where we purchased the book for our assignment. The stall was good and the books were neatly arranged. Smita wishes to buy ‘Wings of Fire’ by A.P.J.Abdul Kalam, but she was inspired by the other. And we were both satisfied with the book we took. The Bookpoint stall contained many science-oriented books too. The book which we purchased was published by Orient Blackswan. There were so many book stalls such as Nakeeran Publications, Book World Library, Leo book distributors, Higginbothams, UBS Publications, Galaxy Publications, Universal Publishers, Pustak Mahal, Info Maps, Left word books, Singa Rohini Trading company, Westland, Bharathan Publications, Orient Blackswan, etc.

Review of our Favourite Book:

The name of the book that we had purchased was ‘Survival Strategies’ by Raghavendra Gadagkar. He is a professor and Chairman of the Centre for Ecological Sciences of the Indian Institute of Science and Honorary Senior Fellow, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research in Bangalore, India. The book actually costs Rs.195/- but it was given at a discount of Rs.20/- This book is about the cooperation and conflict in Animal societies. “Survival Strategies” is a highly readable update of the spectacular evolutionary productions of animal social behaviour. The author, a leading contributor to the subject, ranges smoothly from the natural history to the genetic basis of the many phenomena that have surfaced during the past two decades. There are about 200 pages in this book. “Survival Strategies” talks about social animals and their behavior with each other. It talks about evolution, games animals play, the fine balance between cooperation and conflict. At last, there is a conclusion bringing all these together. The conclusion in this book emphasizes that physiologists and evolutionary biologists should not quarrel about whose explanation is more correct. Much unnecessary debate and confusion is avoided if we recognize the distinctness of the two different levels of analysis and work within either of them. This book totally gives information about animals and their behaviour. This book helped us to know more about animals better. We were moved and motivated by the content of the book to take wildlife management as our inter-disciplinary course next year.

Submitted by:

S.Beryl Melita &

R.Smita Mohan, I BSc Pbt