Lookin' Back..!

This month, we celebrate eight fruitful years of blogging, and we've completed more than 8oo posts till date. Looking back, I just wonder at the pace at which Time flits by, on the wings of the whole wide web... 

Indeed it looks like, I wrote my first blog post just about yesterday!! What started off as a log/record of class activities for my students, quite soon expanded over a period of time to accommodate posts on general awareness, Educational scholarships, Association Activities, Recruitments, celebrating Student writers, acknowledging Student achievers, etc.

Herewith i would like to present memorable highlights of my blog - 

Personally, thus far, the cream of the blog, would be, Student Assignments which speak volumes to the creative abilities latent within every student. ‘Inspirational posts’ which are the lighthouse to the blog, serve to motivate students towards their goals!

Posts on ‘General Awareness’ have become a huge hit with netizens, particularly with my students - past and present, and I am sure convinced that they have been quite useful to the general reader too!

I would also like to say, with all humility, that we have got requests for lesson plans/lesson help/ lesson ideas/ lesson summaries from more than 200 netizens (students and/or researchers and/or fellow teachers) from across the world, and, thanks to my illustrious staff friends, we have been able to help out as much as possible, in the limited time available to us, everyone who has sought our academic guidance, totally free of cost!

Now for the acknowledgements - 

Topics for Oratory.:

Dear Students of II BA English Literature, 

Please find below the topics you've opted for, as part of your obligations towards your Paper on Rhetoric.

Your names are displayed against the topics you have chosen. Students who have not yet chosen your topic, may do so at the earliest. You can send me an email to rufusonline@gmail.com and confirm your topics. You may also start preparing for your Speech rightaway, by collecting data for the same. 

Criteria on what makes a good speech, will be displayed shortly. 

All the very best!

Regards, 

Rufus, Course Teacher

Topics for Oratory:

1.        Alcohol should be illegal. - ANTONY

2.        Children should provide room and board for their aging parents.

3.        Studying grammar is more important than practising conversation skills.

4.        Television is the leading cause of violence in today's society. - JENILA

5.        Dogs make better companions than cats.

6.        Smoking should be permitted in public places. - JEON

7.        Females are better students than males. - LOGESWARI

8.        Reading English is more difficult than writing English.

9.        Summer is the best season of the year. - SANDHIYA

10.     College students should wear uniforms.

11.     21 should be the legal driving age around the world.

12.     Rock and Roll is the best kind of music.

13.     "Is being happy connected with having a lot of money?" – JEEVAN / CHRISTINA GEORGE

14.     Beauty is only skin deep.

15.     The Olympics are a waste of money.

16.     Does violence in television and movies influence the way children behave?

Poetry Fest @ MCC | A Report

Our Principal, at the release of 'Cornucopia'

Sylvan Verses @ MCC | A Report

Global Voices Resonate Under the Trees at MCC’s Prakriti Poetry Fest

The rustic, sylvan locale of the Selaiyur Hall at Madras Christian College (MCC) transformed into a vibrant literary stage this December, as the college played host to the four-day Prakriti Poetry Reading Fest.

Held under the shade of the campus’s mighty, historic trees, the festival became a melting pot of culture, bridging the gap between the Mediterranean coast and the Coromandel, and connecting the ancient mysticism of Kashmir with the modern voices of cinema.

The South-South Parallel

The festival opened on Saturday, 10th December with an intellectual exploration of the “South-South parallel.” The session featured a distinguished “Mediterranean Poets” panel, including French-Lebanese poet and essayist of international renown, Salah Stétié, and Italian novelist and translator, Giuseppe Conte.

In a dialogue of verses, they were joined by Tamil literary figures Anand Krishnan, Kavitha Muralidharan, and Sivakami IAS. Together, the collective explored the threads connecting Mediterranean sensibilities with South Indian realities, reading from their works to an engaged audience.

Echoes of Kashmir

On the second day, the focus shifted from the ocean to the valley. Eminent poet Ranjit Hoskote took the stage to resurrect the voice of Lal Ded, the 14th-century mystic and forerunner of Sufism in the Kashmir Valley.

Hoskote presented selections from his translation of 146 poems from Lalla’s circulating corpus, rendering her ancient utterances into fresh, evocative English.

The audience was visibly moved as he recited -

I’m towing my boat across the ocean with a thread.

Will He hear me and help me across?

Or am I seeping away like water from a half-baked cup?

Wander, my poor soul, you're not going home anytime soon.

The session concluded with a dynamic interaction, as Mr. Hoskote fielded inquisitive queries from the students, bridging the gap between the medieval mystic and the modern youth.

Our Principal, releasing Cornucopia...

Tagore and the Modern Muse

The festival maintained its momentum on Day Three with a heartwarming recital by the Rabindranath Tagore Panel in the Selaiyur Hall guest room.

By Day Four, the atmosphere turned cinematic. Poet and filmmaker Arjun Bali took the podium, reciting his works to a rapt audience. In a unique twist, Bali opened the floor for a “listener’s choice” session, allowing the audience to curate the flow of the poetry.

A ‘Cornucopia’ of Talent

The festivities culminated in a significant literary launch. Dr. Alexander Jesudasan, Principal of MCC, released the first variety ensemble of TEA @ MCC titled Cornucopia.

The first copy of the book was received by Shri Arjun C. Bali in the presence of Dr. Felix Moses and Dr. Stephen Jebanesan.

From the shade of the ancient trees to the release of new books, the four-day Prakriti Fest was a resounding success, offering a rare space where eminent and emerging poets could cater to the mind and heart alike.

Bringing Poetry Closer to You...

Poetry with Prakriti @ MCC

The festival brings together eminent and emerging poets,

featuring readings to small, intimate audiences.

So,

 if there’s a poet in you waiting to come out,

Don’t miss out...!

The Schedule:

@ MCC

On Saturday, 10 December, 10 am – Mediterranean Poet Panel @ SH, MCC

On Monday, 12 December, 1 pm – Noted poet Ranjit Hoskote @ SH, MCC

On Tuesday, 13 December, 11.30 am – Rabindranath Tagore Panel @ SH, MCC

On Friday, 16 December, 11.30 am – Arjun Bali @ SH, MCC

Deborah Parsons on Modernism

The beginning of the twentieth century witnessed an international revolution in the arts, as a wide range of cultural groups, aesthetic movements and individual writers and artists sought to extend and transform their relationship with and representation of reality. 

The word ‘modernism’ represents the retrospective fusion of these very diverse aesthetic experiments into the comprehensive style or social and psychological temper of a ‘modern’ age typically dated between 1910 and 1930. In their now classical guide, Bradbury and McFarlane describe Modernism as ‘an art of a rapidly modernizing world, a world of rapid industrial development, advanced technology, ubrbanisation, secularisation and mass forms of social life’, but also ‘the art of a world from which many traditional certainties had departed, and a certain sort of Victorian confidence not only in the onward progress of mankind but in the very solidity and visibility of reality itself has evaporated’ (Bradbury and McFarlane, 1976:57).

This double condition results in a central contradiction: depending on context and perspective, modernism can be seen as a vigorous creative impulse to ‘make it new’, through a determined break with the stultifying artistic conventions of the immediate past and an embrace of the modern, or as a literature of crisis and dislocation, desperately insisting on the power of art to give shape to a world that has lost all order and stability.

Because modernism connotes a cultural sensibility rather than a particular period in time, however, it is not simply interchangeable with strictly historical references such as ‘the early twentieth century’ or ‘the 1920s’, even though it overlaps with them.

The label ‘high modernism’ refers specifically to the canonical account of Anglo-American literary experimentation  between the world wars, characterised by a turn away from direct modes of representation towards greater abstraction and aesthetic impersonality and self-reflexivity. Such aesthetic formalism is typically identified with the canonical figures of Ezra Pound and T.S.Eliot, as well as Joyce and Woolf.

As a result of the insights of post-structuralist, feminist and post-colonial critics, however, the concept of modernism is now widely recognised to be open to much broader interpretation and redefinition than this reading previously acknowledged. 

Work Cited: Parsons, Deborah. Theorists of the Modernist Novel. New York; Routledge, 2007. Print.

Rhetoric Lesson feed - Reg

Dear Students of II BA English Literature,
Hope you've got your textual notes for your IV Semester Paper on Rhetoric.
In case you haven't, please find it uploaded in a easy-to-download and printable format at the link here:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/80768479/Practical-Elements-of-Rhetoric

Regards and all best wishes,
Rufus
Course teacher

Oratory Topics..:

Dear Students of II BA English Litt.,

Your topics for Oratory as part of your Paper on Rhetoric, are given below. You may opt for any one from among the options given. Moreover, kindly check back for updates on the Lesson Plan for the Paper.

1.   Alcohol should be made illegal.

2.   Children should provide room and board for their aging parents.

3.   Studying grammar is more important than practising conversation skills.

4.   Television is the leading cause of violence in today's society.

5.   Dogs make better companions than cats.

6.   Smoking should be permitted in public places.

7.   Girls are better students than boys.

8.   Reading English is more difficult than writing English.

9.   Summer is the best season of the year.

10. College students should wear uniforms.

11. 21 should be the legal driving age around the world.

Test your Word Power and Memory Power..:

Dear Students, These are the words you need to remember as part of your 'Word Building' schedule in class. Now, try remembering each word given here, by associating it with its corresponding number. All the best:-) 

1. Dishevelled appearance - untidy

2. A baffling problem - puzzling

3. lenient parent - not strict

4. repulsive personality - disgusting

5. audacious attempt - bold

6. parry a blow - ward off/avoid

7. prevalent disease - widespread

8. ominous report - threatening

9. an incredible story - unbelievable

10. an opthalmologist - eye doctor

11. will supersede the old law - take the place of 

12. an anonymous donor - name not known

A Tribute to a Legend..:

The Website inaugural in honour of the memory of Dr.Vishnu Bhat, held at TGP Kalyana Mandapam, Tambaram, on Friday, 18 November 2011, saw a grateful gathering of myriad minds, who had been touched by the spell of this literary wizard in one way or the other. The life of Dr.Vishnu Bhat – the teacher, philosopher, guru and friend was an inspiration and a motivation to innumerable students and staff alike, now spread far and wide across this globe, lightening lives. 

Dr.Jayaraman and Dr.Neelakandan

The programme began at 3.15 pm and ended at 5.30 pm. Many scholars paid their tributes, the notable one being Dr.Jayaraman, his bosom friend and soul mate. Given below are excerpts from the tributes/eulogies in honour of the memory of the late Dr.Vishnu Bhat.

Firstly, Dr.Ganesh, speaking of his Guru, said: 

Dr.Vishnu Bhat breathed literature. The kind of man that he was, was evident in the way in which he helped his students, right from the way in which he helped them prepare for a CA test, or an MA Project or an MPhil project, or a PhD Scholar, with the same enthusiasm and energy, without looking for standard. Sir did not like the word ‘standard’ – a word that any teacher today flaunts. He always said that the interest level must come up. So he will teach anybody anything at anytime. 

Tackling the Question Paper [Semester III]

Tackling the Question Paper - Semester III - Part II English

The first three Essay questions carry 20x3=60 marks each, and so give your best time and effort to these three questions. You will have one question each from Poetry/Prose/Short Stories with internal choice too!  

Spend between twenty and thirty minutes on each ESSAY question, which totally takes 1 hr and 30 mts of your time.

Essay questions are meant to be at least three to four sides in length. Do not waste answer sheets by writing a mere five or six lines in it. Make sure you write at least a minimum of 14 lines per page.

Tackling the Question Paper [Semester I]

Tackling the Question Paper for Semester I:

Firstly, let us deal with the first three Essay questions that carry 20x3=60 marks each.

Spend between twenty and thirty minutes on each ESSAY question, which totally takes 1 hr and 30 mts of your time. 

For answering essay questions, give a neat, catchy introduction. Use textual quotations to authenticate your views. Do not write extensively about the author’s biography. It is not needed! And, please... do not write the story. The examiner does not expect you to write the story, which even a fourth grader can write down with extreme finesse. On the other hand, the examiner expects you to give a critical evaluation of the text that you have studied. A critical analysis involves a creative analysis.  And, always stick to one tense form. If you start with the present tense, continue in the same tense form till the end of your essay. Finally, while summing up your ESSAY, remember to make it memorable!

Blueprint for Semester III - Part II English

                                      Semester III

Question Paper blueprint for the End of Semester Examination - November 2011

Time: 3 Hrs                                                      Marks: 100

I. Answer any ONE of the following in about 500 words: [1x20=20]

Three questions from poetry.

II. Answer any ONE of the following in about 500 words: [1x20=20]

Three questions from prose.

III. Answer any ONE of the following in about 500 words: [1x20=20]

Three questions from short stories.

IV. Story Completion: [1x10=10]

The electric train stopped at Saidapet Station. The Station Master announced that the Adyar river was flowing over the railway bridge...................

V.Note Making: [1x10=10]

One passage of about 300 words. No choice.

VI. Cloze Test: [1x10=10]

One passage of about 150 words with 10 missing words. The 10 missing words to be supplied in a jumbled order.

VII. Grammar: [5x2=10]

Fill in the blanks with the correct forms. Five sentences will be given.

Eg: 1. He is the ....... [tall] boy in the class.

                                                *****

Blueprint for Semester I - Part II English

                                          Semester I

Question Paper blueprint for the End of Semester Examination - November 2011

Time: 3 Hrs                                                      Marks: 100

I. Answer any ONE of the following in about 500 words: [1x20=20]

Three questions from poetry.

II. Answer any ONE of the following in about 500 words: [1x20=20]

Three questions from prose.

III. Answer any ONE of the following in about 500 words: [1x20=20]

Three questions from Ibsen's "A Doll's House"

IV. Answer any ONE: [1x10=10]

Two questions on writing a Formal Letter.

E.g.: A formal letter to the Dean of Student Affairs requesting for leave of absence to attend a relative's wedding. OR .......

V. Answer any ONE: [1x10=10]

Two imaginary situations for Dialogue Writing.

E.g.: Two students discussing a movie they have seen. OR .........

VI. Write a critical appreciation of the following poem in about 150 words: [1x10=10]

The poem should not be one of the prescribed poems.

VII. Sentence correction exercises: [ 5x2=10 ]

No internal choice. Five incorrect sentences to be given. Students have to write out the corrected sentences.

                                                  ******

"A Doll's House" - Henrik Ibsen - Critical Analysis

Introduction:

Ibsen is called the father of realistic drama. He perfected the drama of conversation. He was the first man to show that high tragedy could be written about ordinary people and in ordinary everyday prose. His plays deal with the problems of contemporary everyday life situations. “A Doll’s House” is the best known and one of the most popular of Ibsen’s works. It is a play about women’s freedom, which deals with the liberation of the individual from the shackles and restraints of custom and convention.

Problem in Husband-Wife Relationship:

The play deals with the problem of marriage, of husband-wife relationship. It deals with the

Believe in Yourself..! Excellent Tips for Writing a Great Exam..:

All the best..!

Before the Examination:

1. Get a normal night’s sleep before the examination date.
2. Reach the Exam Centre early and relax or discuss with close friends.
3. BE SELF-RELIANT: Check if you have taken your Hall Ticket, your College ID Card etc along with the required stationery needed for the exam. Do not borrow anything like pens, pencils, eraser etc from anybody in the Examination hall.
4. Check again the time and place of the Examination Centre.
5. On the examination day, leave home early so that you will don’t get caught up in traffic jams / hardships / tight-corners etc., as no student is permitted inside the examination centre 30 minutes after the commencement of the exam.
6. Have a light breakfast too, as energy is essential for good thinking.
7.DO NOT LEAVE VALUABLES like mobile phone, jewellery, cash etc outside the EXAMINATION VENUE. It might not be safe at all.

During the Examination:

1. Read the question paper and the instructions thoroughly. Mark the questions which you find you can answer. Ask the invigilator for clarifications, if any.
2. Make a rough time scheme and decide how much time you should allot to each question.
3. Leave 15 minutes at the end to review the answers and make corrections, as needed.
4. Before you start on any particular question, make sure you understand it/interpret it correctly.
5. Answer the easiest and shortest question first.
Answers should be brief and conforming to what is asked in the question.
6. If you get stuck up, proceed to the next question and come back at the end if there is time.
Leave a margin of 3 cm at the left side of the answer sheet, if there is no printed margin.

7. Mark the question numbers clearly in the left margin.
8. Clearly understand the difference between the usages "Define", “Distinguish”, “Compare”, “Describe”, “Illustrate”, etc.

9.ORGANISE YOUR ANSWER SHEET: 

Write legibly; use reasonably large size letters; don’t cram; space the lines. NUMBER ALL YOUR PAGES.
10. Do not write your name or any symbols that reveal your identity, anywhere in the answer sheet.

Morning Session starts at 9.30 am.
Afternoon Session starts at 1.30 pm.

Finally, be honest, and do your best..! God will take care of the rest..!

Here's wishing you happy writing! All the very best..!

"The Case for Short Words" - Richard Lederer - Lesson Summary

The Case for Short Words

Introduction:

“The Case for Short Words,” written by Richard Lederer, explains how short words get your point across much more efficiently than many long words might.  He says, “A lot of small words, more than you might think, can meet your needs with a strength, grace, and charm that large words do not have”. The essay is a heightened plea so users of the English language to go for short, crisp, swift words, instead of a long word.

The Wrong Notion about the Use of Short Words:

Students of the English language are often under a preconceived false notion  that by using a more complex vocabulary in writing and by using long words in conversation, others might consider them as being ‘well educated’, and perhaps even a little more ‘intelligent’. Richard

"The Tower of Gabble" - P.Sainath - A Critical Summary

Introduction:

"Development Rhetoric"

In 1946, the famous English author and journalist George Orwell wrote an impassioned essay, "Politics and the English Language", criticizing the dangers of "ugly and inaccurate" contemporary written English. “The Tower of Gabble” by P.Sainath is likewise “a very deft parody of a dialect, called NGO-Speak.” Sainath is an Indian journalist who has extensively covered the horrible realities of poverty in India and the thousands of suicides of small farmers driven to self destruction by neo-liberal policies. His work has won praise from the likes of Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen who referred to him as “one of the world’s great experts on famine and hunger”.

A Satire on the Rhetoric of ‘Development’:

The writer Sainath makes fun of all the verbal jugglery, of the lingua franca used by a majority of the grant applicants and conference planners to obtain a sustainable grant from some major foundation or organisation. This NGO argot or NGO slang, as it is known, is deeply confusing and so complicating to the extent that instead of serving the purpose,

Phrases like “Exploratory Sessions will be based on Interactive Communication” and “They could be roped in via a Plenary Session on Good Governance, Accountability and the importance of Networking” serve to sarcastically highlight the enormous complexity used by ‘Development’ activists, which are poorly understood by the local community most of the time, since they are conceptualised from the perspective of the NGOs.

II Year Part II English - Lesson Summaries - Reg

Dear Students of III Sem (Part II English),

Please find the updated version of the lesson summaries for eight lesson modules, in the link HERE.

Wishing you all the best in your Semester exams, 

Rufus

On Writing College Assignments - My Observations

Dear Students, 

After evaluating your Assignments, as part of your internals, I thought I would share with you a few thoughts of mine on the same. 

First of all, assignments have been made a part of Internal assessment to substitute for one Internal test, mainly to provide you an opportunity to get high marks by doing well using your creative potential. I normally give a good assignment a score of even 90 when i am convinced that the student has done some original work.

 
While some students are excited about the concept of Assignments, trying to do their assignments to the best of their abilities, there are some others who are quite lackadaisical about it."After all...", "it doesn't require the serious preparation that is required for an Internal test" they seem to say in a lethargic fashion.

There are students who have submitted two-page assignments which are, interestingly "bound" in a thick blue or green jacket!

And there are many students who fail to include 'Works Cited' list in your assignments. You cannot just like that quote from sources without acknowledging them. An Undergraduate student of English literature is expected to give a minimum of ten citations (abiding by the MLA Handbook), while students doing their Postgraduation are expected to read extensively before compiling a working bibliography of at least ten to fifteen print sources.

Plagiarism in Academic assignments is a strict NO. It's rather a shame to lift from the works of other scholars without having the guts to acknowledge them, and my students, I hope do not indulge in it.

Secondly, reading through your assignments should give your teacher the happiness that the student has done (or has strived to do) original, meaningful research work. Otherwise, the whole purpose behind writing Academic assignments is not served at all. It will be just a sham and nothing more!!! 

I strongly feel that, a student's tryst with creativity in College rightly starts with the way one does his/her assignment. To put it simply, the way you tackle your assignment speaks volumes of your enthusiasm and passion towards your subject. Also, the way you tackle your assignments in your academic atmosphere today, is an indicator of how you would tackle your job responsibilities in the future. Hence, give your best, and ONLY your best to your Assignments.  

Regards, 

Rufus
PS: Your suggestions are welcome.

Picture courtesy: zanecarmichael.com