In the City today..(Saturday, 12 May, 2007)

A comprehensive voice training workshop on diction, pronunciation, enunciation, modulation and more will be on from May 12 to 13 at THE PARNASUS, 192, Poonamalle High Road, Kilpauk.
For details, 98401 27103 / 64567121

KNOWLEDGE XCHANGE: Seminar on 'Delearn to Relearn,' Taj Coromandel, 9.30 am.

Novel Plan for Students from University Grants Commission...! A step in the right direction from students' perspective..!

The UGC has planned to implement the Graduates Registration and Information System, as part of which each student entering higher education in Universities and Colleges will be given a Unique Number.
The new system would be implemented during 2007-08 academic year. The UGC would link the Unique Numbers with subsequent academic qualifications. The Unique Number would also be used to develop and establish qualification-skill-competency card integrated with the multi-purpose cards, implement scholarship and loan schemes to contain the problem of malpractices in higher education and help track loan recovery and umemployment assistance etc.

The Govt Website for Scholarships.. Grab the Opportunity... You have something for everybody out here...!

Union Government's Website for Scholarship: The ministry of Human Resource development has launched a unique website to provide details about scholarships to students. Click here to check it out.

The website not only details about scholarship programmes, but it also speaks about exhange programmes. It also provides facility to download scholarship forms. Scholarships and fellowships are available for all conceivable subjects of study or disciplines. All the best...!

Walk-in INTERVIEWS

Walk-in Interviews on Sunday for non-voice, day-shift openings in a a leading MNC.
The interview is open to BSc, MSc and PhD candidates in Life Sciences and Chemistry and BE Graduates.
Those awaiting their results can also attend the interviews scheduled from 9 am at Bertram Hall, Loyola College. CONTACT: 2498 6614

For those of you Aspiring for a Career in Social Sciences...!

Dear Students,
The long awaited TISS advert that some of you had asked for, has come out finally.
TISS Announcement for Admission to Post-Graduate Degree Programmes
For details, refer today's THE HINDU on page 9

In the City Today - May 11, 2007

Workshop on TIME MANAGEMENT, Days Inn, Deccan Plaza, May 11, 2007
36, Royapettah High Road, Chennai, conducted by MADRAS MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION.

Interactive Workshop by POGO M.A.D fame Rob on May 11, from 4 pm to 5 pm at Landmark Store, Spencer Plaza.


Korean Film Festival - May 14 to 18, 2007@ South Indian Film Chamber Theatre, 606, Anna Salai, Chennai
Contact: 2829 1507

Turkish Film Festival - May 28 to 31, 2007@ South Indian Film Chamber Theatre, 606, Anna Salai, Chennai
Contact: 2829 1508

The University of Madras's Education Fair is On...!

For Class XII Students and Graduates who are puzzled by the plethora of Courses to choose from, the University of Madras is organising a four-day educational exhibition, from Wednesday, 09 May 2007 to Saturday, 12 May 2007.
The exhibition will be held from 10 a.m to 5.30 p.m on all four days. For details, CLICK ON ITS WEBSITE.

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TWELVE HOURS OF NON-STOP MUSIC on Friday, 11 MAY 2007 from 6 p.m to 6 a.m.,
at the St.George's Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School Grounds, opp. Pachaiyappa's College.
Famous playback singers and leading choirs - M.S.Viswanathan, P.B.Shrinivas, K.J.Yesudas, S.P.Balasubramaniam, Unni Menon, P.Susheela, L.R.Easwari, S.Janaki, Vani Jayaram, K.S.Chitra and Jollee Abraham.
Entry is Free. For more details, contact 26460719

Edu-tainment in the City...!

Indo Russian Film Club and International Cine Appreciation Forum is screening The White Sun of the Desert and Wartime Romance on MAY 09, from 6 to 8 pm at No 74, Kasturi Ranga Road. For details - 2499 0615

Short Story Lovers Cub: Discussion on Stories in Poems, South Mada Street, Triplicane, 09 May @ 04.00 pm.

Discussion on Decision Making conducted by MADRAS MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION, @ MMA HOUSE, 148-K, Old Mahabalipuram Road, Thoraipakkam, 09 May @5.30 pm.

Course on ADVANCED COMMUNICATION SKILLS @ Tambaram East

A Course on Advanced Communication Skills
begins this Thursday, 10 th of May
at Olive Institute, Tambaram East (near MCC).
I will be handling the majority of the classes along with the great exponent of language - Dr.Daniel David.
Interested candidates can contact: Miss.Annie @ 044-2239 6255
My students can avail a special concession from Miss.Annie, who again is an alumna of MCC.
Regards,
Rufus

It's High Time you Started Reading...!

It's past your exams and the holidays are a blessing in disguise for all of you, including those on the hunt out for jobs, to stretch out a little and make use of YOUR TIME to YOUR BEST ADVANTAGE. To aid and assist reading good fiction writers and good fiction, a good compilation of the same has been brought out exclusively for your convenience.

Robert Ludlum , the author of twenty-one novels, each one a New York Times bestseller. There are more than 210 million of his books in print, and they have been translated into thirty-two languages. He is the author of The Scarlatti Inheritance, The Chancellor Manuscript, and the Jason Bourne series--The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum--among others.

Every spring, lawyer-turned-novelist John Grisham dominates the publishing world with a new bestseller. Nicknamed "Hurricane Grisham" by journalists, he has taken Hollywood by storm as well: Grisham's made-for-adaptation legal thrillers have spawned the blockbusters The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, and A Time to Kill, inspiring Film Comment to concede that he may be one of cinema's new auteurs.

Thomas Leo Clancy Jr. (born April 12, 1947), better known as Tom Clancy, is a US author of bestselling political thrillers, best known for his technically detailed espionage and military science storylines. The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, and The Sum of All Fears have been turned into commercially successful films.
All but two of Clancy's novels feature Jack Ryan and/or John Clark.

Scottish writer who became known for his well crafted adventure thrillers, The sea or the icy north was Alistair MacLean's favorite setting, from H.M.S. Ulysses , and Ice Station Zebra to his late collection of short stories, The Lonely Sea. A number of MacLean's books gained a huge success as films, among them Where Eagles Dare, starring Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton, The Guns of Navarone, starring Gregory Peck, David Niven, and Anthony Quinn, Ice Station Zebra, and Breakheart Pass, starring Charles Bronson. He also used the pen name Ian Stuart.

James Hadley Chase wrote most of his books using a dictionary of American slang, detailed maps, encyclopedias and reference books on the American underworld. Most of the books were based on events occurring in the United States. Best known for his crime stories, Many of them having been made into films, most notably No Orchids for Miss Blandish, which was filmed twice where it was titled The Grissom Gang . He was wildly popular in Asia and Africa. He also enjoyed success in France and Italy where more than twenty of his books were made into movies.

Jeffrey Archer's writing career has spanned almost 30 years. His bestselling novels, which range from Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less to Kane and Abel and The Eleventh Commandment, have sold over 120 million copies throughout the world. In August 2001, he was sentenced to four years in prison for perjury. During that time he wrote three highly praised and bestselling works of non-fiction entitled Prison Diaries. He was released in July 2003. He is simply unputdownable.!

Frederick Forsyth is probably best known as the best-selling author of The Day Of The Jackal, the film version of which is currently one of the top grossing movies in the American charts. This, together with The Odessa File quickly established his innovative style. Some of his other popular fiction include The Dogs of War, The Devil's Alternative, The Fourth Protocol, The Negotiator, The Deceiver, The Fist of God, Icon and Avenger, etc.,

PG Wodehouse, the greatest comic writer ever, Ian Fleming, who created the character of James Bond, debuting in the 1952 novel Casino Royale, Paulo Coelho who has sold over 86 million books in over 150 countries worldwide and translated into 66 languages are some of the other unputdownables.

WISH YOU HAPPY READING...!

Blog Readers are welcome to share their own list of unputdownable authors.

Acknowledgement: I sincerely thank Prof. Daniel David for his suggestions and inputs regarding the writers cited above. Thank you dear sir.! :-)

It'

Symbiosis for Part-timers..!

This news is for those of you, especially Vinoth and Aravind who had asked about Symbiosis based at Pune, especially for those of you who are planning to get into full time jobs, after Graduation. For more details and prospectus, CLICK HERE The last date is 17 July 2007. All information given here should be confirmed by you personally with the offices concerned.

Getting Prepared to Succeed...!

As calls keep coming from grateful and lovely students about their getting placed in reputed MNCs, Organisations and Institutions of Repute, we as their teachers feel proud in their happiness, and I thought of just sharing a few words of encouragement for their workplace: Please take just three minutes off your time to read this out:

Attitude is defined by Webster's Dictionary as:

1. A bodily posture showing mood, action, etc.
2. A manner showing one's feelings or thoughts.
3. One's disposition, opinion, etc.

When your boss singles you out to perform a certain work, how do you react? Are you willing? Are you enthused? Do you care who's watching? Do you care what your teammates think? Your answer to these questions determines your attitude.

Your attitude demostrates how you react to changes and challenges. Others will gain insight to your inner self by your outer behavior - your attitude, your demeanour, the way you carry yourself.

A positive attitude will help you climb high and achieve seemingly unreachable goals. Conversely, a negative attitude will ground you and keep you from ever recognizing your potential and the potential of others around you.

The great thing about attitude is you have the choice. It's up to you. You have to decide a positive attitude is what you carry. Once you have made the decision, you must work at it. Every day, every hour, every minute you must work at it until being positive becomes part of who you are.

Pellom McDaniels III outlines how negatives can be turned into positives:

Here's how:

When someone says something negative, respond positively regardless of what they say. It's hard to do because the first thing you want to do is make the person shut up and leave you alone. But in the real world, you cant always control your environment. By saying something negative, you lose that opportunity to focus on what you want out of life and what you have worked so hard to pursue.

Remember what your goals are. There will always be people who dont want you to succeed because of jealousy and envy. Dont lower yourself to their level if you want to be successful. Keep your attitude positive.

Believe in yourself no matter what anybody says. Dennis Smith and Michael Jordan were classmates. But you know all about Michael Jordan. But do you know who Dennis is? Of course not. he gave up after eighth grade in school when another kid said he was tooo fat to play football. Where is Dennis today? Who knows? He believed what the other kids said about him, not what he believed about himself.

A positive attitude will give you all the confidence you need to set out on your journey called "Success." A negative attitude will only sink your dreams before they have a chance to blossom. Repeat these lines out loud:

I can, I will, I must have a positive attitude. With a positive attitude, I can and will do great things." Now say it again and again unil you believe it. A positive attitude will help you do your best no matter what the circumstances. You will always find the silver lining in every situation.

Thanks to Pellom McDaniels III and his book, "So you want to be a PRO?" which changed my life for the better.

UNSW Asia Graduate Research Scholarships for Indians

Dear Students, (for those of you graduating this current academic year)

UNSW Asia offers research scholarships for PhD and Masters students commencing studies in 2007.

For postgraduate students demonstrating potential for research:
Full research tuition fee waiver valued at between S$22,080 - S$30,720 per year
Monthly stipend of between S$1,500 and S$2,250
May be required to assist in Academic Divisional work for up to 8 hours per week
Available to all nationalities
Closing date for scholarship application: 15 July 2007

Click here for more details.

For further details, contact the UNSW Asia Representative in South India on 044-42139446

MCC Campus

 
 
 
 

WORK ONLINE, PART-TIME, DURING THE SUMMER HOLS..! Try out these websites...!

Everything a beginner must know about Internet based Small Business to run it Part time from Home. CLICK HERE TO ACCESS

"Once you sign up as an affiliate, your internet marketing skills can lead to huge income on this site" CLICK HERE to ACCESS


For lovli part-time jobs online, CLICK HERE

"This website is exclusively designed for Indians who wants to earn money through Home based internet jobs without any investment, who can spend only few hours in a day. Trust us, you will earn Rs. 20,000 and more from this month." says the website. CLICK HERE TO ACCESS.

The most remarkable thing about this program is anyone can make money with it.
"It doesn't require any special skills, training, education or previous business experience. You only need access to the Internet and basic typing skills. It is the perfect home business for stay at home moms, students, home makers, retirees or anyone that is in need of some extra cash." says the site. CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT

Get the best links for job surveys.
Click here.

Sincere thanks to THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS, dt 25 April, 2007
PLS NOTE:All views and sites mentioned herewith, are the views of the author Gurpreet Kaur, who has given an article in the New INDIAN EXPRESS on the same. As such, it is the duty of the individual concerned, to verify the facts of the case himself/herself.

Have your Say...!

Teaching at College Level should be:
	Life Oriented
	Exam Oriented
	Career Oriented
	Value Oriented
pollcode.com free polls

Bestin Samuel I BA Litt @ His Poetic Best in a V.E Test in Class..! Kudos..!

Vanlalropuia - I BA Lit @ His Creative Best in a Value Edn Test..! Kudos..!

For Literature Students cum Members of BRITISH COUNCIL...!

British Council library, Chennai is celebrating the 10th Anniversary of World Book Day. There is going to be a series of events in the library during the week beginning Monday, 23 April.

As part of the celebrations BCL is organising a quiz on Shakespeare on Wednesday, 25th April 2007 at 5.00 pm. The quiz is open to members of the library.

You can participate as a team of 2; which means you can bring one more person with you who could be a non-member. There will be an elimination round based on Life and works of Shakespeare which could be handled as a team. The teams will be selected based on this for the final round which will be held in the library on the same day. The quiz will be conducted by the Centre for Shakespeare Studies, Chennai.

The winners will get gift worth Rs.3000/-

If you are interested in participating, please fill up the enclosed registration form and send it to us by Monday, 23 April. The registration is restricted to 100 teams on a first-come, first-served basis.

If you have clarifications please contact 4205 0600 or Balamurugan.paramasivan@in.britishcouncil.org

Critical Summary of A PASSAGE TO INDIA - EM FORSTER

Note: A hard copy of the notes has been given to two students viz Jishna and Chaitanya of II BA Eng. Hope you've made use of it. Regards, Rufus

All the BEST to My Dear Students...!

Dear Students,
Hope you've got all the required sparks to get ignited on the day of your battle at the Examinations battle field.

I wish you all the very best.

Try to answer all the questions without trying to confuse the examiner. All the best.! Regards, Rufus

PS: For any last minute clarifications, do contact me any time after four in the evenings.

For Students writing their FIRST Semester...

Kindly cut and paste this url on your browser:
http://rufusmcc.zoomshare.com/3.html

At the Farewell Get-together in Selaiyur Hall, March 28, 2007

THE LAST RIDE TOGETHER - Robert Browning - II BA/BSc/BCom - Part II English notes

"THE LAST RIDE TOGETHER" - Robert Browning

Introduction:

This is a dramatic monologue by Robert Browning. This poem is about a man (who is the speaker) who asks his mistress ( who seems to be the listener but the listener could be ambiguous) for one last ride and she agrees to one last ride together. Language in the poem seems to suggests that he is dying and this is his last wish or that he feels he can't live with out his mistress. the lines are in an aa,bb,c,dd,eee,c rhyme scheme. Part of the men and women collection and Browing refers to art and love in the poem which is one of his intentions to explore.

The Rapture of a Rejected Lover:

The Last Ride Together." The rapture of a rejected lover in the one more last ride which he asks for and obtains, discovers for him the all-sufficing glory of love in itself. Soldiership, statesmanship, art are disproportionate in their results; love can be its own reward, yes, heaven itself.

A VIVID TREATMENT of the PAST:

"Last Ride Together" contains a vivid treatment of the past in stanzas 5 and 6

"Why, all men strive and who succeeds?" ;
"There's many a crown for who can reach.
Ten lines, a statesman's life in each!"

and adds, in stanzas 7 and 8, the activities of poets and artists – these pursuits, arguably noble though they are, can amount to wasting one's life from the standpoint of personal, romantic gratification

"Are you – poor, sick, old ere your time –
Nearer one whit your own sublime
Than we who have never turned a rhyme?"

However, the speaker cannot even take comfort in the reality of present love and so must confine himself even more firmly in the joys of the present - a ride with his beloved - enough to forget that nothing durable lies beyond them.

Thus this speaker equates the "hope" (l.8) he used to have of love with all the follies of soldiers and artists; all amount to nothing but idealism and hubris. The poem, however, does end on a note of possible optimism, with the speaker contemplating the idea of a heaven consisting of the ephemeral joys of this ride stretched out over all eternity.

Irrelevance of the PAST:

“The Last Ride Together” makes profound statements concerning the irrelevance of the past in relation to present emotions and sentiments. More specifically, Browning discusses hopes that have not been fulfilled, and places them in direct contrast to present circumstances. By revealing the idea that sentiments and events of the past often have little effect on future outcomes, Browning suggests that life should not involve dwelling on the past or hoping for the future, but living in the moment.


The Contrast between the Past and the Present:

The narrator of “The Last Ride Together” presents the contrast between past and present when he says

“contrast / The petty done, the undone vast,
This present of theirs with the hopeful past!
I hoped she would love me; here we ride”

In this case, the hopes of the narrator that his love would be reciprocated have obviously not been realized, as the couple now rides together for the last time. In the fourth stanza, he writes

“Past hopes already lay behind.
What need to strive with a life awry?
Might she have loved me? Just as well
She might have hated, who can tell!”

Here the narrator conveys the idea that his hopes and his actions of the past have been useless in leading up to the state of the present, and also says that his soul has been liberated by letting go of the hopes of the past, thus further suggesting the negativity of hopes. These two passages are indicative of the overall tone of this poem. The narrator wants to forget the past and any ill-advised hopes or ideas he had, and focus on the pure emotions of the moment provided by the ride.

Conclusion:

Thus through this poem, Browning expresses the view that, the past is insignificant, and that one need only live in the moment in order to pursue happiness in life. The juxtapositions of city and ruins, hope for love and a last ride together, both illustrate this idea dramatically. One can learn not to look back on what one hoped for, but only to look forward at what one has.
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