Hamara Shakespeare..:

Five centuries after his demise, William Shakespeare (1564-1616) continues to symbolize the fullest exploration of theatre to represent the gamut of human experience and capture its heights and depths. No playwright in history has been rendered into other languages as often, or been appreciated by an audience as widespread, as Shakespeare has been, particularly in the twentieth century.   

Prakriti Foundation’s commitment to theatre brought inevitably to Shakespeare’s work, except that we were interested in exploring the Indian twist – how have Indian individuals and groups, actors and directors chosen to interpret Shakespeare? The result of this thought process is Hamara Shakespeare, a festival of 3 plays derived from Shakespeare, performed every February in Chennai.

Day I: Friday, 3 February 2012

4 Seasons of Shakespeare by Vayu Naidu Theatre Comany

Directed by: Dr.Vayu Naidu, UK.
Kalakshetra Foundation at 2 PM (Special show for School and College Children) and 7 PM.

Students who are desirous of participating in the first day's event, may report to any of the following Professors: (KG Sir,  David Sir, Rufus Sir, or Abitha ma'm) 

Songs of Kabir - An Aesthetic Delight..:

I just finished reading SONGS OF KABIR, and to put it briefly, every song was a gateway to self-realisation. If revelations came to Lalla 'like a moon flowering in dark water,' For Kabir, revelations are like a fish taking to water- so spontaneous, so candid and so evocative... One can instantly feel the appeal and the zeal of the songs reverberating in our hearts, and enamouring the senses alike.

Wendy Doniger's Preface is profoundly panoptic in its presentation and Arvind Krishna's Introduction is earnestly effulgent in its ebullience. 

Prompts me to go ahead and quote a few lines from the Preface and from the Introduction.

In his Preface, Wendy discusses the conflicting thoughts from Hinduism and Islam on Kabir's birth, and their claim over him [akin to the 14 the century Kashmiri poetess-saint Lal Ded] after his death. 

I quote: The story that Arvind Krishna Mehrotra tells, of the Muslims wanting to bury him and the Hindus to cremate him, may have been inspired by the poem in which he says:

Cremation turns you to ashes, 
Burial into a feast
For an army of worms.
Your athlete's body's only clay, 
A leaky pot, 
A jug with nine holes.

Tree Walk @ MCC

All ears... to the Voice of Nature...

"There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it," goes a famous axiom. Indeed, all our hearts were quietly attentive to the music of the trees, in the sylvan surroundings of Asia's second largest scrub jungle - MCC, on a vivacious weekend. The occasion was the much awaited Tree walk, that got off to a grand start this morning at the boxing ring at 8.15 am. Students and nature lovers alike joined in the walk which was an enlightenment cum eco-entertainment of sorts. Dr.K.Ganesh welcomed the gathering and introduced our guide to the fellow participants.

Dr.D.Narasimhan, (D.N) Professor of Botany, was our guide all the way through, whose lively illustrations and commentaries were appealing, entertaining and ennobling at the same time, making our "tree-walk-the-talk" a memorable one by all means.

Tracing the history of planting trees at MCC post 1937, Dr.D.N said that much of the greenery that we find today in Campus was a result of the planned efforts of illustrious nature lovers, apart from the enormous "tree-contributions" from birds and bats. Most of the trees in Campus today owe their existence to the first curator of the campus Prof. Edward Barnes, who took upon himself the noble task of planting trees and maintaining the biodiversity in campus, which happens to host the second largest scrub jungle in Asia. He is therefore rightly called the green visionary (or the green architect) of the campus. Under his stewardship, the entire campus was fenced to avoid cattle grazing and firewood cutting. More a Botanist than a chemist, he planted trees and also made a record of them systematically. Thus, MCC was able to contribute to the Chennai botanical directory, 36 new species of plants which were hitherto not recorded in the archives. Moreover, Dr.D.N added that, our forest type at MCC is unique because it is a tropical dry evergreen forest in a region where we get 1000 to 1200 mm of rainfall per annum.

Like to Read? Then Proceed...! 😊

Reading As  An art | The Joys of Reading😊

How we started!

Reading is an art! 

Yes! Good and effective reading is an art that requires a considerable degree of creativity, receptivity and imagination. 

In short, a creative eye/ a receptive eye/ an imaginative eye..!

Let’s take a cursory look at our tryst with reading down the years when we were in school.

During those good ol' days of our primary schooling, we were all initiated into the world of Oral Reading. 

Those were indeed the 'good old' days unaffected by most of the trendy gizmos of today! Sigh! 😊

'Eloquent Oral Reading' we call it. 'Blab schools', as they are called in the US. Teachers used oral recitation with special emphasis on correct stress and intonation. 

Then, students were evaluated based on how receptive they were to their teacher and they had to recite back with the correct yardsticks given by the teacher. In oral reading, the focus was more on an accurate recitation of the text, with correct pronunciation!

Then, we got promoted to secondary school. The shift or rather the emphasis here was more towards silent reading. 

"No lip movements, no mumbling, no noises!" we had our teacher - administering corrective measures. In silent reading, the focus of the student was directed more towards grasping meaning , which was the ultimate goal of reading! Comprehension exercises were also given and students were asked to solve them 'quietly'.

In short, we evolved over the years... in our tryst with reading!

Now, fast forward to 'reading as an undergraduate'. 

The transition to degree level is rather sudden... What with the shift towards reading for marks marks and marks alone for our final Board Exams in school, firmly implanted in our minds by our parents, teachers and well-wishers! 

The skills we had so far acquired in our schools, on reading skills, now seem grossly insufficient. There seems to exist a lacunae!

Herein, I would like to acknowledge my indebtedness to a great Professor of our times, Neil McCaw, Reader in Literature and Culture at the University of Winchester, and Programme Leader of the BA Creative Writing Course, for his beautiful, spirited thoughts on Reading at the Undergraduate level. His book How to Read Texts has indeed had a profound influence on me.
 
Your university/college professors sure expect a progression in their undergraduate students' reading skills! 

Students are expected to turn to the Critical aspects of the study of texts.

As Neil McCaw rightly puts it, 

"If you want to write creatively then you study for a creative writing degree, whereas if you want to write critically then you study for an English degree." 

He further says that, the moment the student accepts that the process of reading is inherently creative, it becomes clear how significant he/she is, in the production and interpretation of texts. 

And wow, that is indeed a splendid way of putting it!!

I just would like to highlight two memorable phrases here: "Inherently creative" and "the reader's significance in the production and interpretation of texts".

Again, I wish to highlight these two lovable phrases: :-)

"Inherently creative" and "the reader's significance in the production and interpretation of texts".

Once more, if you don't mind - 

"Inherently creative" and "the reader's significance in the production and interpretation of texts".

 "When you are reading something," Neil McCaw [in his lovely book How to Read Texts] asks you, to just remember one thing:

"That the process you are engaged in is extraordinary!"

 Well, yes... You are engaged in the extraordinary!! the art of reading.

“Readers have the power to create meaning; not just interpret meaning, but to create it”, 

he tells the student, and adds that the student (undergraduate student) should begin to read in a more sophisticated, more interrogative way.

Sophisticated reading! Interrogative reading!! Well, looks quite sophisticated perhaps! But it’s not that sophisticated as it seems, I bet. Real easy, once you start a ‘more rigorous engagement with texts’.

I would like to end this post with an insightful observation by McCaw:

"Some first-year undergraduate students say that learning to read in this new way for a university course takes some of the enjoyment out of reading, that they can no longer just pick up a book, read through and put it down without thinking about it more deeply.

‘I can’t just read for fun anymore’, might be the refrain. But by the end of their degree programmes these same students often remark on how they read with self-conscious rigour almost as second nature, and get much more out of texts than they ever thought was possible.

Which is a way of saying that any initial resistance you may have to this new way of reading is perfectly natural.

You are being asked to interrogate material rather than simply absorb it, and that is a much more demanding mental process.

However, the skills of critical and creative appreciation and understanding that you will hone and fine-tune as part of your undergraduate development will lead you towards reading texts in truly exciting ways, seeing sophistications and nuances invisible to you before, and as a consequence becoming a highly proficient, sensitive and creative reader of texts of all kinds."

Just go ahead...

Take a book....

Start reading....!

...

...

...

...

Happy reading :-)

Acknowledgements: My sincere thanks are due to Professor Neil McCaw, University of Winchester, UK, for spontaneously obliging me, and allowing me to quote from his marvellous book How to Read Texts

Join us for a Tree walk

The 

English

Department,

MCC, invites you

to join in a Tree Walk

- a highly interactive, joyful

educational experience for the

staff and students alike, to appreciate

and enjoy the biodiversity-rich campus. 

A great opportunity indeed to identify, observe

and appreciate the various species of trees, the rich flora

and fauna in this, our wonderful tropical dry evergreen forest, 

 at MCC, 

Asia's II

largest

 scrub

jungle 

Pic of MCC Scrub Jungle - Courtesy: TOI

Date: Saturday, 28 January 2012

Starting Point: Selaiyur Hall Indoor Theatre

Time: 8 am SHARP

'Bioethics is the Love of Life' - Dr.Darryl R.J.Macer

Dr.Darryl engaging the delegates in a group activity...

On the third day of the International Conference on 'Science, Society and Sustainability' today, Dr.Darryl R.J.Macer gave the first plenary on Bioethics. He traced the concept to human heritage thousands of years old, and defined it as the concept of love, balancing benefits and risks of choices and decisions. Although there exists various definitions for bioethics, the simplest would be consideration of the ethical issues raised by questions involving life, like: 

"What food should I eat?
How is the food grown?
Where should I live and how much disturbance of nature should I make?
What relationships should I have with fellow organisms including human beings?
How do I balance the quality of my life with development of love of my life, other's lives and the community?"

Stating that we have the power to remodel whole ecosystems of the planets, he observed that, a fundamental

Shared Stewardship Towards Nature - Dr.Peter Vujakovic

A Case for the Planet...

The second day of the International Conference on Science, Society and Sustainability at Lady Doak College, Madurai, saw two plenaries in the forenoon session. The first speaker Dr.Hilconda P.Calumpong, Institute of Environmental and Marine Studies, Silliman University, Philippines, spoke on the various initiatives of Silliman University in which she had participated, and highlighted pioneering researches, the results of which have led to initiatives that have influenced the national and local government units' policies on CRM as well as Coastal communities' behaviour in caring for and managing their coastal resources.

Dr.Peter Vujakovic, Head of Geographical and Life Sciences at Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU), UK, gave a talk on 'Shared Stewardship of Nature - Past, Present and Future'.

His talk focussed on the 'Biodiversity' initiative currently being developed at CCCU, in the English county of Kent - known as the 'Garden of England' for its landscape and its fruit cultivation. The initiative is focused on the Canterbury UNESCO World Heritage Site (including Canterbury Cathedral, St.Augustine's Abbey and St.Martin's Church - the oldest Church in the English speaking world still used for worship).

International Conference on Science, Society and Sustainability - A Report

A View of the Delegates at the Conference

The International Conference on Science, Society and Sustainability, got underway today with the Welcome address by Dr.A.Mercy Pushphalatha, and prayer by Dr.Synthia Mary. The Inaugural Address was by Mr.N.Ram, Editor-in-Chief, The Hindu. The Key-Note address was by Dr.Robin Gottfried, Director, Center for Religion and the Environment & Professor of Economics, Sewanee: The University of the South, US.

Excerpts from Mr.N.Ram's Inaugural Address:

Citing an Opinion Article in today's 'The Hindu,' by Justice Markandey Katju, Chairman of the Press Council of India, he said,

Some 80 per cent of its people live in poverty, with unemployment, sky-rocketing prices, problems of healthcare, education and housing, and so on. Forty-eight farmers commit suicide on an average each day. And 47 per cent of the children are malnourished. Our national aim must be to abolish these evils and make India prosperous for all.

This stresses the need for the pursuit of accessibility, particularly focusing on those who have

International Seminar on Culture Studies

The UGC-Sponsored International Seminar on Culture Studies was inaugurated by the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Madras, Col.Dr.Thiruvasagam. Dr.Mark Harbold, University of Elmhurst, Chicago, gave the key-note address. Dr.P.Ajay Kumar, Director, Institute of Distance Education, University of Kerala spoke on Culture Studies. The first day [Monday, 09 January] of the two-day Seminar saw more than forty authors presenting their papers chaired by eminent Professors in their respective fields of study.

Dr.Armstrong addressing the delegates (Photo Courtesy: Prof.Dinesh Kumar)

Dr.P.Ajay Kumar, dwelt at length on the transition from literary studies to culture studies, in most of the English/Language departments across the world, and its wide-ranging applications and/or ramifications today. Touching upon theories from Structuralism to Poststructuralism, he said that, Marxism and poststructuralism are different kinds of philosophies with different aims. While Marxism is political, poststructuralism is not. The poststructuralist suspicion is that all forms of politics are equally suspect. In a sense, the rise of postmodernism and poststructuralism are attributed to the crisis in Marxism. 'Post-structuralism,' he said, 'is marked by a rejection of totalizing, essentialist, foundationalist concepts.'

Speaking on Marx's concept of the consciousness and its relation with political economy, he quotes Marx: "It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness."He then proceeded to talk about the significance of language, language and meaning, Ideology etc in Culture Studies. Explicating further on Ideology, he discussed Louis Althusser's concept of Ideological State Apparatuses, that shape our perceptions and attitudes.

Every perceiver's method of perceiving can be shown to contain an inherent bias which affects what is perceived to a significant degree. 

A wholly objective perception of individual entities is therefore not possible: any observer is bound to create something of what he observes. 

Accordingly, the relationship between observer and observed achieves a kind of primacy. It becomes the only thing that can be observed ... 

In consequence, the true nature of things may be said to lie not in things themselves, but in the relationships which we construct, and then perceive, between them. 

This new concept, that the world is made up of relationships rather than things, constitutes the first principle of that way of thinking which can properly be called 'structuralist'.

- Terence Hawkes in Structuralism and Semiotics

Celebrating 175 years of Madras Christian College

A thanksgiving service was organized on Saturday, 07 January 2012 to mark the College's 175th year. Rev.Robert Willis, Dean of the Canterbury Cathedral, took part in the Service. As part of the service, the Principal gave the Welcome and Introduction, excerpts from which are given below: 

The Very Rev.Robert Willis, Dean of Canterbury Cathedral, UK; the Very Rev.Canon Ivor Smith-Cameron, Former Chaplain to the Queen of England and an alumnus of our College; Dr.Besant Raj, Chairman, MCC Association, Board of Directors, Bursar, President of the Alumni Association, former Principals and Bursars, Deans, Heads of Departments, Teaching, Administrative and Support Staff, former staff, alumni, student-friends, invitees, press, Ladies and Gentlemen, 

On behalf of the MCC family, it is my great privilege and pleasure to welcome you all to the Thanksgiving Service organised by the Madras Christian College for having rendered 175 years of dedicated service to humanity.