Tuesday 29 June 2021

"A book... lets you travel to far-away places without ever leaving your chair..."

The Gala Reading Challenge 📖🥳

 [July 2021]

Some little guidelines for us!

Inauguration of the challenge –

Thursday, 01 July 2021

Reading continues till –

Thursday, 15 July 2021

Guidelines for Reading

Divide your book into 15 parts.

For example,

If your book has 150 pages, your daily reading quota would work out to just ten pages a day!

Then, on a daily basis, for the next fifteen days, as and when you read your book, you may -

share a lovely line,

or

a lovely quote,

or

a thought-provoking line,

or

a funny line,

or

a line that so motivated you,

or

a word that provoked your curiosity,

or

a sentence that transformed your perspective

or

simply anything that you loved reading from those ten pages for the day!

As simple as that!

On the 15th day, i.e., 15 July 2021, you will be given ten questions based on the book that you’ve read!

[Entirely your own lovely, personal takes!].

Sometime later, probably on some mutually agreed upon day, (if, and when time permits) we shall plan on a relaxed and cool Clubhouse discussion.

So yep!

The countdown begins! 🥳

We’ve got exactly 24 hours more to go!

Best wishes dear participants. 🥳

Poster Design: Prof. Premjith Mathew

Monday 28 June 2021

"என்ன அடிக்கிறதுக்கு you who?" 😋

‘We Learn by Making Mistakes’

Life Lessons in the Classroom 

#memoriesfromdiaries 

28 June 2001  

Prof. P. Natarajan, our beloved HoD was famous for his short, witty anecdotes that always carried a moral on them.

Whenever he entered our class, [with a cheerful smile on his face, as always], the first thing he usually did was to give us a cute, inspiring anecdote, and then turning to the blackboard, he would write down at least five difficult words for us, along with their accompanying pronunciation, as part of his Vocabulary series with us.

An impeccable gentleman of the highest order, he was [and is] always known for his love, his integrity and his passion for literature.

On this particular day in our class, in our final year PG, he narrated one such witty anecdote to us, on how we learn from our mistakes.

Said Prof. Natarajan,

In our boyhood, we studied English only after our sixth standard. So we were just quite eager to learn it and my friend especially was very enthusiastic about learning English.

One day my brother gave a beating to my little friend for some reason, and pat shouted my friend,

"என்ன அடிக்கிறதுக்கு you who?" 😋

would translate to mean, ‘to beat me, you who?’ 😋

This incident still remains fresh in my mind. So we learn only from our mistakes,

quipped Prof. P. Natarajan!

Prof. Natarajan giving away a memento to Dr. Appadurai,
flanked by our Principal Prof. Jayakar Chellaraj

You may also want to read more of such interesting and entertaining classes of Prof. Natarajan with us, HERE

Sunday 27 June 2021

MCC Rocks...! 🥳

MCC ON A ROLL! | Toppers Yet Again! 🥳

Excerpts from the INDIA TODAY GROUP – MDRA SURVEY Report

[July 05, 2021 Issue]

With more than 40,000 colleges across India, the 25th edition of the India Today Group’s Best Colleges Survey, intends to make critical career decisions easier for aspirants based on rich data. The ranking is considered the gold standard for various stakeholders, such as recruiters, parents, alumni, policymakers, institutions and the general public.


Colleges were ranked across 14 streams – arts, science, commerce, medical, dental, engineering, architecture, law, mass communication, hotel management, BBA, BCA, social work and fashion design.

For the objective ranking, MDRA fine-tuned over 112 performance indicators in each stream to provide the most comprehensive and balanced comparison of colleges. The indicators were clubbed under five broad parameters –

Intake Quality & Governance

Academic Excellence

Infrastructure & Living Experience

Personality & Leadership Development

&

Career Progression & Placement.

An attempt was also made to understand how colleges had prepared themselves to handle the Covid pandemic.

This year’s survey focused on how colleges had raised their game to meet the digital education challenge.

Every college had its own incredible story. Young teachers trained their seniors to navigate the digital world. Teachers remained available round the clock on WhatsApp. Colleges organized mental health counselling to detox students and teachers from digital overexposure.

The Best Colleges Survey was preceded by some good news from the education sector. The All India Survey on Higher Education 2019-20, released in May, showed that enrolment of girls in higher education has grown by over 18 per cent in the past five years.

There are some worrying indicators too. While the number of colleges in India has increased by 3,272 in the past five years, taking the total to 42,343, the number of colleges per million students inched up from 2.8 in 2015-16 to just 3 in 2019-20.

There is also much disparity in the geographical distribution of colleges.

Ten states account for 78 per cent of the total colleges.

These are –

Uttar Pradesh

Maharashtra

Karnataka

Rajasthan

Andhra Pradesh

Tamil Nadu

Madhya Pradesh

Gujarat

Telangana &

Kerala

The trend reflects in our Best Colleges Survey, with the top institutes in each stream concentrated in a handful of cities, says the report.

From being placed on the ninth position just 14 years ago, (our past post HERE), to becoming top-notchers this year, is indeed reason enough for some real celebration!

Me grabbing my cuppa coffee right away! 😍

Notes on Derrida’s ‘Signature Event Context’

Derrida’s ‘Signature Event Context’

A Critical Summary

Introduction

The essay, “Signature Event Context”, by Jacques Derrida was originally written for a conference on the theme of “Communication” in Montreal, August, 1971, where he explicates on his theory of speech and writing.

This essay hence proves to be one of Derrida’s clearest explications on two key notions that pervade his entire work. The first is the notion of iterability, and the second is the notion of logocentrism – two key notions that are definitive and integral components of western thought!

To Derrida, speech is also a kind of writing. In this respect, his theory is in every way a sharp contrast to Marshall McLuhan’s concept of ‘writing’ and the media.

The Epigraph to the Essay

Derrida begins his essay with an epigraph by Austin, taken from his most influential work, titled, How to Do Things with Words.

It goes thus -

"Still confining ourselves for simplicity to spoken utterance”, which serves to foreground the logocentric assumptions of the statement, and thereby establish a hierarchy of meaning.

The dictionary, for example, practices this logocentric assumption, in which, the primary meaning of a word is mentioned first, followed by its secondary meanings.

However, to Derrida, words are necessarily polysemic!

So Derrida then dwells on the polysemic meaning of communication.

‘Communication’ as a Vehicle or as a Means of Transport

Derrida then asks if the word or signifier ‘communication’ corresponds to a concept that is ‘communicable’?

If so, then one must ask oneself, what does the word [or signifier] ‘communication’ communicate?

Does it communicate a

determinate content,

an identifiable meaning,

or

a describable value.

Derrida then predetermines the concept of communication as a vehicle, a means of transport or transitional medium of a meaning!

Communication & Context

The word ‘communication’ can be reduced by the limits of what is called a ‘context’.

The ‘context’ restricts the meaning of the word.

According to Derrida, a context is never absolutely determinable!

The notion of writing can only be seen as a means of communication, that  extends across time and space. In other words writing merely extends the domain of oral or gestural communication.

Limitations of Oral Communication

In fact, writing offers a sort of ‘homogeneous space’ of communication, because, in locutory communication, the voice or gesture would encounter therein a restriction or a factual limit, an empirical boundary of space and of time, while writing, in the same time and in the same space, would be capable of ‘relaxing’ those limits and hence the unity and wholeness of meaning would not be affected in its essence!

To Derrida, then, traditional Western metaphysical philosophy is therefore an ‘extension’ of speech.

Writing Does not Change the Content of the Oral Tradition

Writing to Derrida, (in contrast to McLuhan’s theory) does not alter or change the content of the oral tradition, since the same ideas in the oral tradition can be communicated in a ‘vehicular way’ through writing, in the written tradition as well, without in any way changing the content!

One of the main axioms of American Media Studies is that, writing has its own biases, when contrasted with the oral tradition. And this is exactly where Derrida differs from Marshall McLuhan.

Derrida’s Attack on Condillac’s Theory of Writing

Then he proceeds to attack Condillac’s theory of writing, by citing from Condillac’s Essay on the Origin of Human Knowledge, in which he portrays writing as a ‘natural development’ of the knowledge, and the ideas of the oral tradition, first by the drawing of pictures, then pictographic writing, and then gradually grows more abstract, and thereby becomes a seamless extension of the oral tradition.

In the Western metaphysical tradition, writing has always been addressed to an absent audience - the primary difference between writing and speech, in the Western tradition, something that Derrida contests, vehemently against.

According to Derrida, Condillac has not discussed the idea of absence in terms of the centre.

For example, when someone reads a particular author’s text, the author is ‘absent’ to the reader, and the author might have been dead as well. Therefore, there is a certain ‘non-presence’.

In the ‘logocentric tradition’, logocentrism is the metaphysics of presence, through which absence is seen a supplement to it. Derrida hence develops his own theory of media here, based on the ‘absence’, a kind of ontology of absence, that displaces the concept of writing, and reframes it with his theory of differance – as an endless chain of significations.

Sign, Imagination & Memory

The sign comes into being at the same time as imagination and memory, the moment it is necessitated by the absence of the object from present perception.

Memory consists in nothing but the power of recalling the signs of our ideas, or the circumstances that accompanied them; and this power only takes place by virtue of the analogy of the signs.

A written sign is hence proffered in the absence of the receiver.

Absence: Merely a Distance Presence

At the moment when an author is writing, the receiver may be absent from the author’s field of present perception. ‘But is not this absence merely a distant presence, one which is delayed or which, in one form or another, is idealized in its representation?’ asks Derrida.

My Communication Must be Repeatable-Iterable!

In order for my “written communication” to retain its function as writing, i.e., its readability, it must remain readable despite the absolute disappearance of any receiver, determined in general. My communication must be repeatable-iterable in the absolute absence of the receiver, he says!

A writing that is not structurally readable-iterable-beyond the death of the addressee would not be writing.

To Write is to Produce a ‘Mark’!

A mark is a sign that has been divested of the metaphysics of presence.

Therefore, ‘to write’ is to produce a mark that will constitute a sort of machine which is productive in turn, and which my future disappearance will not, in principle, hinder in its functioning, offering things and itself to be read and to be rewritten.

It is the structure of the ‘mark’ that makes it writing as such! 

And the mark of writing is its iterability! Its legibility.

Writing has to be legible. In the absence of a centre, I should still be able to read and understand what the centre intended or meant in sending this message.

Writing has to be iterable or legible in the sense that it should be able to be divorced from its originary source, from the source of the author, or the context that originated it.

Derrida then takes the concept of absence and iterability and extends it across all other media.

The Signifier is No Longer Grounded by the Signified

Speech therefore, according to Derrida is not at all different from writing, it is also separable from its original context. The signifiers in both speech and writing are separable from their original context, both in speech and writing. And they are capable of being inscribed and being grafted into other contexts. The signifier is no longer grounded by the signified, since all the signifieds now exist outside the context of the metaphysically encoding systems.

This is in sharp contrast to the MacLuhan idea of Media Studies, in which MacLuhan says that, every medium has its own bias. Thus Derrida rescues ‘writing’ from domination and tyranny by the metaphysics of presence in the logocentric tradition.

Then Derrida moves on to Austin’s theory of the distinction between ‘performative utterances’ and ‘constative utterances’.

Constative utterances are assertive statements, classical ‘assertions’, generally considered as true or false ‘descriptions’, of facts, whereas, performative utterances make something happen! (from the English ‘performative’, allowing to accomplish something through speech itself).

Performative Utterances make ‘Something Happen!’

Although Derrida is quite appreciative of Austin’s attempt to liberate performative statements from the true/false dichotomy, he critiques Austin for depending too much on the notions of intention, context, and convention.

To Derrida, an utterance can only “succeed” if its formulation is repeatable, or iterable, or if it can be identified as a “citation”, conforming to a predictable structure, at some point in the past!

Derrida extends this concept of iterability to written texts, and gives signatures as an example. He claims that in order for a signature to be valid, it must contain the qualities of being repeatable and imitable, conforming to a predictable structure, at some point in the past!

The signature anchors the performative utterance in the written version. The signature supplements or compensate the living presence of the author, and thereby authorises it!

At the same time, it also indicates a future presence, with the possibility of the reproducibility of the signature, as an authority of the document that’s being signed.

One reason why he ironically ends the paper by signing his own name, by saying,

The-written-text of this oral communication was to be delivered to the Association des societes de philosophie de langue francaise, ahead of the meeting. That dispatch should thus have been signed. Which I do, and counterfeit, here. Where? There. J.D.

Conclusion

Speech and writing are two forms of media that are doing the same thing! Both based on the same model of differance, the endless play of signifying chains based on the iterability and possibility of removing them from their original contexts, of deauthorising both the signifiers from their original signifieds, and generating entirely new contexts of meaning around them. As such, there is basically no difference between speech and writing, concludes Derrida.

'A research student engaged in serious academic work needs to have a formal and meaningful outlet through seminars and journals'

On English: A Research Journal

This post is the second and final part in our series on the scholarly Research Journal published by the Research Department of English, Madras Christian College (Autonomous), Chennai.

English: A Research Journal was founded in the year 1986-87, which also coincided with the 150th year celebrations of the College.

Hence the 150th year logo that’s to the top left of this page.

Well, English: A Research Journal was born out of the personal initiative of Dr. P. Rajani, Department of English, MCC, who also became the Journal’s founding Editor.

Eminent scholars – Dr. Claramma Xavier and Dr. R. S. Chandraleka have also been part of the Journal’s Editorial Board.

On a very heart-warming note, I came to know that the journal was almost entirely funded by him and his family, with solid academic support from Dr. Rajagopalan and Dr. Nirmal Selvamony, who’ve been a great source of support to him, by helping him edit the essays. Dr. Nirmal Selvamony was one of the regular contributors of essays to this journal as well.

Pranams to their commitment, devotion and dedication!

The Editorial note by Prof. Rajani to this introductory volume, beautifully sets out the scope of the Journal in a nutshell –

Here goes –

A research student engaged in serious academic work needs to have a formal and meaningful outlet through seminars and journals. While the former need is sufficiently met, the dearth of literary journals in the Madras University area has virtually stifled research publication. This journal is, therefore, founded to promote research-oriented writing among staff and students of the English Department of the college.

This venture is a modest beginning and we hope that it will grow into a full-fledged journal and encourage more significant research studies in the Department. The articles collected in this inaugural issue are mostly by young scholars for whom this is the first serious attempt at writing research papers. Shortcomings, if any, and there are likely to be some, may be attributed to the critical inexperience of the contributors. Nevertheless, it is a laudable attempt, and likely to inspire more writing.

In the absence of any common theme running through these papers no attempt has been made to arrange them thematically. Most of the essays in the present collection deal with individual works providing a rich variety of study, and focus attention on some aspect of the work under consideration. If the essay on Plath’s letters appears to be impressionistic, those that deal with Steinbeck, Orwell, Orton, Mamet and Lawrence aim at a central governing idea systematically worked out. The essays on Narayan and Williams are of a general nature hinting at the way their works are to be interpreted. Dr. Francis Soundarraj’s contribution would be of interest to lovers of linguistics, while Professor Nirmal Kumar’s essay has an appeal of a different kind.

This journal would not have been possible but for the generous monetary assistance given by the various business establishments. We are, indeed, beholden to them and hope that in years to come business would promote the cause of academics,

signs off Dr. P. Rajani on the Editorial note to this introductory volume.

And the journal saw its final volume in the years 1998 – 1999.

[On an aside, Dr. Rajani (b. 26 December 1939) retired in the year 1998, after 30 years of devoted and dedicated service in MCC]. 

This final Volume had Dr. V. Rajagopalan, Dr. Nirmal Selvamony, Dr. P. Rajani and Dr. P. S. Dorai as its Editors.

Excerpts from the Editorial Note –

The Department of English at Madras Christian College promotes Women’s Studies at three different levels – as course content of foundational second language for all undergraduates, as a course in Women’s Writing for undergraduates majoring in English, and as an optional paper on Women’s Writing for postgraduates in English. In fact, the Department has all the resources necessary for running a centre for Women’s Writing which could provide opportunities for offering courses (leading to a diploma or even a degree) and research.

The Department’s engagement with Women’s Studies can be strengthened not only by stocking books on the subject, but also by conducting seminars and workshops on the theme. With this in mind, the Department conducted a seminar on “Women and Social Justice” on 1st and 2nd March, 1999 at the college.

The presentations were made by scholars drawn from different disciplines – development studies (Dr. Anandhi, Institute of Development Alternatives, Chennai), Tamilology (Dr. R. Vijayalakshmi, International Institute of Tamil Studies, Chennai), Sociology (Dr. Lakshmanan Sabaratnam, Davidson College, Davidson, NC, USA), creative writing (Mrs. Rajam Krishnan, Tamil Novelist), and, in deed, English (Dr. C. T. Indra, Head of the Department of English, University of Madras; Dr. Rathi Jaffer, English Studies Officer, The British Council, Chennai, Mrs. Meenakshi Shivram, Guest Lecturer, English Department, University of Madras; Dr. Manohar Samuel, and Dr. Nirmal Selvamony of the English Department of Madras Christian College).

From different perspectives the seminar papers examined the forces (such as caste, race, culture, political power, and custom which disempower women insidiously and openly) by problematizing them in specific social and literary contexts…

We thank those who presented papers in the seminar (the major resource for the present volume) and also the seminar participants. We thank Dr. P. S. Dorai (former Head of the Department of English, Madras Christian College) and Dr. A. Vishnu Bhat (Head, Department of English, Madras Christian College) for having been very supportive in all the Department projects concerning Women’s Studies, including the seminar on “Women and Social Justice”. Needless to say that without the generous patronage of the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia, the journal could not have been published at all. A special word of thanks goes to Dr. Mrs. Achamma Mathai (Convener of Women’s Studies) for the encouragement and all the help she extended at the different stages of the progress of this journal. We are also grateful to Dr. P. Rajani (Visiting Professor, Department of English, University of Madras) for his paper, and to Prof. Lakshmanan Sabaratnam for collaborating on the paper, ‘Awareness Gendered’.

We hope this journal will help build up not only the Department’s library but also the academic programmes and projects in the area of Women’s Writing in Madras Christian College,

signs off the Editorial note to this Volume.

Would love to sign off on this post with a very insightful observation made by Dr. Maria Preethi Srinivasan, Head, Department of English, Queen Mary’s College (Autonomous), Chennai.

Says Dr. Preethi,

I would like to add that writing while you research is important because writing is a cognitive activity. It’s not about putting it all together after you have researched. Drafting, goes through several phases. Elucidating ideas, collating information, stringing together an argument is what one does while drafting. In the process one recognises “gaps” in information or gaps in the argument. So, researchers, as Prof Rajani would say, “Write everyday”!

How true!

This would be the most perfect tribute to the legendary Dr. P. Rajani, and to his commitment to furthering the cause of research.

PS: I also wish to extend my sincere gratitude and a heartful of thanks to Dr. Nirmal Selvamony, for helping me get these rich and valuable insights on this prestigious Journal, and also for sending me scanned copies of the first and the last volumes of the Journal.

You may also want to read a related article on the Research Fervour at MCC, and a Course Teacher / Supervisor’s expectations from a candidate’s Research Paper / Assignment, HERE

'Can Emily use her lively mind and runaway imagination to help bring a library to Pitchfork?'

27 June 1996 | Memories 

#memoriesfromdiaries 💛

As a routine and a ritual, mornings and evenings [alongside my quota of coffee] were usually reserved for those delightful, joyous library visits.

We had a kutty little band of guys who used to frequent the lone library in town. On this particular day I met two of my friends – Panchaksharam and Joseph in the Library premises. Then, as usual, we all had coffee together. ☕😋

On my last entry of the day - well, if there was any pressing issue that needed urgent attention, I used to impulsively start writing about it, and after having got it neatly typed out, sans errors of any sort, I used to post them for the Readers’ Mail column in ‘The Hindu’.   

Well, you may want to read a related post on an exciting children’s novel titled, Emily’s Runaway Imagination, by Beverly Cleary, published way back, in the year 1961.

Emily is a nine-year old little girl who grows up in a little ‘rural’ town called Pitchfork!

Emily used to write occasional letters to her cousin Muriel. 

Muriel always wrote about the library books she read - books like Heidi and Toby Tyler, which Emily had never even seen.

Aunt Irene, Muriel’s mother, said that Muriel was a regular little bookworm.

Emily did not envy Muriel the fleece-lined bedroom slippers or the cement sidewalk for roller-skating, but she did envy her that library.

She longed to be a bookworm, although she did not think she would care to be called one.

Unfortunately, the town of Pitchfork, Oregon, did not have a library.

Now, can Emily use her lively mind and runaway imagination to help bring a library to Pitchfork?

And that forms the crux of this delightful story, on our past post HERE! 

Saturday 26 June 2021

‘A work of art is very seldom limited to one exclusive meaning and not necessarily tending to a definite conclusion’

English: A Journal | Memories 💫

[From the Archives]

Memorable Musings on a Research Journal from the Research Department of English, Madras Christian College, founded by our beloved Professor (Late) Dr. P. Rajani.

This morning, after having read through an article on the need and importance of doing research, I thought of doing a post on a High Quality Research Journal brought out by the Research Department of English, Madras Christian College (Autonomous), Chennai from the late 1980s onwards.

This particular issue – [Volume V, 1993-1994] is special for many reasons.

Firstly, for the epigraph to this Volume.

Well, the very epigraph that opens this issue, is from Joseph Conrad, and it says,

‘A work of art is very seldom limited to one exclusive meaning and not necessarily tending to a definite conclusion’,

that speaks volumes to the Derridean perspectives to meaning as well!

Secondly, the Editor Dr. P. Rajani, a distinguished scholar of such great academic repute.

Thirdly, this volume has a particular theme to it – Women’s Studies. One reason why this volume in particular, has been published in collaboration with the Centre for Women’s Studies, MCC.

Fourthly, the rich and highly original thoughts of all the contributors. Well, there are fifteen articles of such high merit, contributed by eminent scholars which include - 

Vaasanthi,

C. T. Indra,

Rajam Krishnan,

Swathi Thiagarajan,

Lakshmi Ramachandran,

Kadambari,

E. S. Latha,

Hannah Swamidoss,

Nirmal Selvamony,

Chidambarakumarasamy,

A. Sudha,

S. Mythili, etc.

Fifthly, almost zero typographical or spelling errors in the entire volume of research articles. 

To quote Goldsmith to my defence, 

‘The more I gazed, the more my wonder grew’, as to how meticulously the volume has been prepared, taking utmost care of even the most minute details in this important aspect, that goes in sync with readability. 

Sixthly, a word about the printing. The Journal has been printed by the Printing Technology Unit, at Madras Christian College, a Printing Unit that’s been around for decades to further the cause of publishing.

Finally, what I loved most about each of the articles, is their quality and their originality.

Each of the writers has written down their highly original thoughts and ideas in such coherent, well-structured and neatly graded paragraphs.

ONE paragraph discusses just ONE idea. NOT more than that.

In other words, each paragraph is devoted to the discussion of just one idea! Not an idea more!

In addition, their writing ‘speaks’ volumes to the enormous reading that they must have done all by themselves, and the passionate research that must have gone into the making of such well-organised articles.

As they say, a  ‘well-constructed article speaks for itself.

If we could then use the analogy of an architect here –

The very first impression that we have of a building or a house will surely ‘speak’ volumes to the enormous planning and the immense effort that has gone into the designing of the building, aint it?

In the same vein, great palaces the world over, are known for their ‘astounding sense of originality. People from all walks of life literally flock by the thousands to such ‘places of originality’ mostly because of the inexpressible, ecstatic joy that they obtain when they see this something that’s so unique, something that’s so original, something that they can NEVER see anywhere else, at any point of time!

That’s one reason why, heritage structures, palaces of the good old past, monuments and memorials of yore, have a great impact on us all of the time, chiefly and exclusively because of the huge planning and the effort that must have gone into its making!

That’s the difference between a spectacular grandiose palace, and a very shabby mediocre house, ain't it? 

These legendary scholars, (our forerunners in academics) had this conviction on them – that they were building spectacular grandiose palaces of high renown, that had to withstand the test of time, articles that will ‘speak’ volumes to their passion, their sincerity, their originality and their commitment towards their construction.

What T. S. Eliot would call, the ‘thisness’ of a text, or what Walter Benjamin would call, the ‘aura’ of a work of art!

They believed that, this originality is something that a writer needs to cherish, nurture and cultivate!

Harold Bloom calls it, ‘original strangeness’, a term that he quite popularized in his sensational book titled, The Western Canon, when writing on Shakespeare.

Bloom here defines ‘originality’ this way -

Originality then would be a ‘strangeness, a mode of originality that either cannot be assimilated, or that so assimilates us that we cease to see it as strange’.

Which means that, the ‘strangeness’ of the work, its inventiveness, is something that prevents it from being compared to any other work, and thereby gives the work its originality, or, to use the words of the eminent critic Scupin Richard, ‘the aura of authenticity’.

So proud to say with all conviction that, English: A Research Journal is solid testimony to this ‘aura of authenticity!’

Journal Musings to be continued…

PS: Thanks a million to Dr. Nirmal Selvamony, who readily and willingly gave me a whole lot of information concerning this prestigious Journal, and also scanned the first page of this particular volume for me, making this post much more comprehensive in its appeal. 🙏

PS: You may also want to read Professor Joseph Dorairaj’s talk at MCC on 04 September 2013, on the Essentials of a Good Research’, HERE.

and

A Workshop on the ‘Nuances of Doing Research’, that Professor Joseph Dorairaj had conducted almost a decade ago, on 29 September 2011, at Gandhigram Research Institute – Deemed University, Dindigul, HERE.