Professor J. Vasanthan - A Tribute

I am stunned when I look with respect and awe at a picture of Prof. J. Vasanthan. The fire in his eyes, the grace in his looks, the nobility in his visage, the determination in his firm lips, his royal bearing and his majestic posture compel me into a wild guess of what an enigma of a professor he must have been!

Loved all, loved by all, hated none, and hated by none.

J.Vasanthan, started his teaching career at Madras Christian College, and later retired as Professor of English with the American College, Madurai. His passing away recently in Madurai, has created a void which cannot be replaced now or in the future. Such was his style! such was his verve! such was his commitment to his vocation!

JV (as he was fondly called by his students and admirers) was a versatile personality - a professional cartoonist, writer, actor, professor all rolled in one. He also had a wonderful sense of humour and an artful way with words. One could sit with him, at his dinner table, and listen to him recollecting fond memories of days past in MCC, or talk about Tom and Jerry, or bring out the aesthetic and the sublime in Shakespeare, or Milton or Wordsworth, or Keats, with abundant verve and gusto. He was teacher to famous stalwarts in academics, like Dr. Nirmal Selvamony, Dr. Benet, Dr. Premila, Prof. Daniel David, to name a few, and eminent politicians like Prakash Karat, etc.

Chennai Book Fair - 2014

The Chennai Book Fair is getting better and better, by the year, going by present indications. The YMCA Grounds that played host to the Fair this year, was a lot more effective in crowd management and parking management. Unlike last year, when volunteers from BAPSI controlled the parking lots using their own volunteers, this year saw the traffic constables and SIs doing a really commendable job in traffic management and parking management. They facilitated neat parking of cars and bikes.

Celebrating the Eternal Woman...

Dr. Dasan delivered the key note address on “Celebrating the Eternal Woman:  A Note on the Heroism of the Feminine Psyche” at the National Seminar on Women’s Writing in English, held at St.Mary’s College, on 10 January 2014.

Excerpts from his address:

This keynote address aims at the figural portrayal of the female self. While attempting to highlight the contrasting perceptions between the ‘female self’ as a biological and natural construct and ‘the woman’ as a social construct, it underscores that ultimately it is the paradoxical differences in gender sexuality, differences which simultaneously reiterate the beauty and richness of the biological complementarity ingrained in the very act of the creation of man and woman, which prevail in terms of true humanity. I am one of those who subscribe to the view that the social construct of woman, woman as objectified Other, ‘reified as a sexual and linguistic commodity fixed, written about and traded among men’ by the metaphysical Self, ought to be dismantled and deconstructed, and the natural construct of the female self, attuned to the biological and the eternal feminine, should prevail as a liberating force.

The Elizabethan Age - Lesson Outline - IV