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A Teacher’s Day Today | Daily Diary

Morning I woke up at 5 am, and then from 5.30 to 6 am went through the day’s newspapers.

The Editorial page in today’s Times of India, sported a shocking feature article on America’s popular support for a killer! (of a healthcare CEO)

Excerpts from the article - 

US has a tradition of turning criminals into folk heroes. Thompson’s killer is unlikely to be lionised as they have been, but he has something in common with criminals of the past who were seen favourably by the public. During the depression, ordinary Americans saw robbers like Bonnie and Clyde or the Dillinger gang as fighting against banks, on behalf of the poor. Subway vigilante Bernie Goetz shot four men that he said were trying to rob him on a New York subway in 1984, at a time when the police were viewed as ineffective.

The murder of a health insurance company’s CEO speaks to many Americans for much the same reason. These companies are almost universally despised in American culture. More than 90% of Americans have health insurance. And according to polling from KFF, a leading health policy non-profit, 40% of them have medical debt. Three-quarters of Americans say they worry about being able to afford the healthcare services they might need,

says the article, by Prof. Dan Cassino.

Moving on to the Editorial Page of The New Indian Express, I came across a very perceptive editorial piece on ‘Lessons for Democracy from impeachment of South Korean President’, that says –

In South Korea, Yoon won the presidential mandate in 2022 by a whisker. But he ended up being the first president in decades dealing with an opposition-controlled parliament for his entire tenure as his party failed to get a majority—just 108 in a 300-member House. That dissonance and his lack of political experience—he joined the ruling party in 2021 after a long career as a prosecutor—possibly made him impatient!

Quite insightful!

Then went to the Newspaper Mart and bought 25 newspapers (English dailies) for students.

I reached College by 8 am today. So happy that 17 students turn up every day at around 8 am to collect their daily newspapers.

Spot at 8.30 am, entered the II MA Class, and I was glad to see most of the students seated in class much ahead of time. Felt so glad to see this.

We discussed Bioregional Literary Studies in class today, from LifePlace: BIOREGIONAL THOUGHT AND PRACTICE by Robert L. Thayer, Jr.

Then, met with students who had their appointments with me from 9.30 to 10.45 am.

The “Book Reading Chain Circulation” that we had initiated amongst our Ideators, a few months ago, got a new member on board today.

So at 10.20 am, my vibrant ward Annie met me to get her paper corrected.

Later, Swetha introduced Amy as the next reader for the Book Reading Chain Circulation System.

Well, for newbies to Book Reading Chain Circulation, it is a system where a single book is passed from one person to another in a chain-like manner, with each person reading the book before passing it on to the next, in a week’s time, essentially creating a ‘chain’ of readers who all get to access the same book sequentially.

This Chain Circulation helps to foster a sense of shared reading experience within a group, allowing people to discuss the book with others who have also read it.

The book is titled, The Urgency of Change by J. Krishnamurti.

Photo Courtesy: Mr. Sabarinathan, III BBA

Mr. Sabarinathan inaugurated the Book Reading Chain Circulation by reading the book and then blogging about it. Ms. Durga got the book from Sabari, and after reading the book, in a week’s time, she passed it on to Ms. Shannon, who, then passed it on to Ms. Swetha. Today, Ms. Swetha has now passed it on to Ms. Amy - who has promised to finish reading the book in a week’s time.

Readers who have completed the Book Reading Chain Circulation will be sharing their thoughts about the book in their online blogs/social media platforms, and later they would come together for a Panel Discussion on the book during a Think Tank Rendezvous.

If you have a book to share with fellow ideators, please share the book to me and we shall start a new Book Reading Chain Circulation.

Then, wished a genial Good Morning (as usual) to our 90-year old vibrant PhD Scholar and Dr. Abdul Kalam's Classmate Dr. T. D. Krishnamachari, who is currently doing his third PhD in Mathematics in MCC. 

After that, had the third hour II MA Class for the students, in the Miller Memorial Library, where I also took attendance for them, and met with the Librarian as well.

At 11.40 am, I rushed to Queen Mary’s College, Mylapore, which took me around an hour’s drive from Tambaram. Right when I reached QMC, Dr. Preethi gave me a call, and guided me to the Lecture Hall.

The lecture hall was brimming with enthusiastic student readers, who had just given their best, as part of the Avid Readers’ Challenge. The Readers’ Challenge had a compilation of some lovely reads – one novel and 10 short stories compiled into a single document for students to read them and come geared up for the Challenge.

A lovely conceptualistion by Dr. Preethi, HoD, English, Queen Mary's College

Hats off to the consistent efforts, hard work and dynamic initiatives of Dr. Preethi and her vibrant team, in promoting the habit of reading amongst students. I was also happy to distribute the prizes to the Winners of the Reading Challenge. Dr. Preethi had a few lovely words on Readers’ Rendezvous, our Whatsapp Group formed in November 2017 to share from what we read!

Then followed my Talk. And as Patron of Readers' Planet, my talk today at QMC was on ‘How to Make Reading a Habit’.

Towards the end of the talk, I also exhorted the students to visit the Chennai Book Fair 2025 that starts on 27th December 2024, at the YMCA Grounds, Chennai.

The lecture ended at 1.35 pm, and after that, we went to a lovely restaurant in Mylapore for a Fellowship Lunch for our vibrant kids who are part of the Office of International Programmes, MCC – a long overdue lunch, that we had promised the kids months ago, for their exemplary service as Interns with the Office of International Programmes. It was a memorable time with such fun and frolic, and a ‘prank birthday’ that we had orchestrated for one kid amongst us, that proved the memorable icing on the cake. 😊

Sabari was quite busy on his momo hunt, 😊 and he also did a quick and exciting vlog to archive the occasion for memory.

Since Prof. Arun couldn’t join us at the last minute, we had a surprise visitor who joined us today (Ms. Christina)

On an aside, a few proud moments today -

So happy to also note that Ms. Lekhaa from II BA English is having her ideation inaugurated tomorrow, as a Service Learning Programme from the Dept of English.

It’s titled, ‘The Magic of Storytelling: A Society of Storytellers’. The Staff in-charge for the programme is Dr. Sam Paul.

Added, special congratulations to three of our students who have published their first books this past week – Joshua Mahima, from III BA English, Nitish Kumar from I MA English and Veena from II BA English. Kudos to you dear students. Links to their books are given here to the right of our blog.

What’s more!

We are having the famous Katha Utsav for the very first time @ MCC in the last week of December 2024.

Those of you who are interested in participating in this two-day workshop, (to be conducted by eminent writers) can ping me asap.

Participants of the workshop will be given a Participation Certificate as well! 

PS: You may want to read an Interview that our students had done with Dr. T. D. Krishnamachari, a classmate of Dr. Abdul Kalam, HERE, on our past post. 

Picture Courtesy: Dr. Abdul Kalam with his classmate Dr. Krishnamachari from Times of India, Chennai Edition