II BA English - Assignment on Rhetoric - Reg

Dear Students of II BA English,

Today is your last date for submission of your Assignment, as part of your I CIA on Rhetoric. So far, I've got 17 assignments in my mail box, and still counting.I wish to reiterate, what i've said earlier, that no possible extension of the deadline will be given. So, make sure you submit your assignments by tonight. The mail id is: rufusonline@gmail.com

With all best wishes,

Rufus

II CIA - Reg

Dear Students of I BSc Pbt/Zoo (Reg),

As announced earlier, you will be tested based on all the prescribed poems/essays with special focus on the novel Animal Farm. The Internal Test will be held at the same venue in which you wrote your I CIAs.

II BA English Literature students are expected to submit your assignments (as part of your I CIA) on or before Friday, 30 March 2012, failing which you will be forfeiting your marks for the same. All your assignments on Oratory should be in the form of MS Word, 1.5 spacing, Times New Roman, and sent to me as an email attachment at rufusonline@gmail.com. For an overview of the topics, kindly click on this link here

With all best wishes,

Rufus
Course teacher

UGC Seminar - A Report

The UGC-Sponsored One-day National Seminar got off to a grand start on Monday, 12 March 2012 at 9 am at the Centre for Media Studies Auditorium. The key-note address by Prof. K. Srilata, IITM, tuned the audience to the theme of the session - Post-Independence Indian Writing in English: Theory and Praxis. The second issue of our Peer-reviewed Journal 'Eclectic Representations' was released by the key-note speaker on the occasion. There were in all sixteen paper presenters, who did great presentations, and answered questions (sometimes irritating questions too) with aplomb and dignity. 

The cream of the afternoon session  was the valedictory address by Dr. Premila Paul, Associate Professor of English, The American College, Madurai. She had all the minds and hearts spellbound by her rapturous insights into the various facets of Post-Independence Indian Writing in English. The book Mapping Territories, containing papers of the participants, was released by Dr. Premila Paul, while Dr. Shanthi Manuel, Member of the Board, released the Student' initiative 'Cornucopia'.

Students' performance was the icing on the cake. Radha and Arul Jyoti performed a dance recital, and students of II MA English (Anki & Shruti) gave a soulful rendition of patriotic songs followed by our National Anthem. The national integration video 'Mile sur mera tumhara' was screened towards the end of the afternoon session. 

Dr. K. Ganesh presented the Vote of Thanks.

Shashi Tharoor's take on 'why engineers become terrorists.!'

An IIT graduate - so the story goes - is walking near a pond one day when a frog speaks to him. "Kiss me," it says, "and i will turn into a beautiful princess." The IITian does a double-take, turns back to check if he has heard right, and sure enough, the frog repeats itself: "Kiss me and i will turn into a beautiful princess." He looks thoughtfully at the frog, picks it up and puts it into his pocket. A plaintive wail soon emerges: "Kiss me and i will turn into a beautiful princess." He ignores it and walks on. Soon the frog asks, "Aren't you going to kiss me?" The IIT guy stops, pulls the frog out of his pocket, and replies matter-of-factly: "I'm an engineer. I don't have time for a girlfriend. But a talking frog is cool." 

No prizes for guessing what a literature graduate would have done in the same situation! Such is the self-image of the engineer in India: rational, hard-working, self-disciplined, steady, focused on the results of his work. Parents pray for the smartest of their kids to become engineers. Any child with better than average marks in science at school is pushed towards the profession, sustained by peer pressure that convinces him there could be no higher aspiration.

And no doubt for some there isn't. But that clearly isn't the whole story. Disturbing new research at Oxford University by sociologists Diego Gambetta and Steffen Hertog points to an intriguing - one might say worrying - correlation between engineering and terrorism.

If that doesn't raise eyebrows at the IITs, nothing will. But consider the evidence: Osama bin Laden was a student of engineering. So were the star 9/11 kamikaze pilot Mohammed Atta, the alleged mastermind of that plot, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and their all-but-forgotten predecessor, the chief plotter of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Ramzi Yousef.

AKARA 2012 @ MCC

The Annual Literary Fiesta of The English Association, MCC - Akāra 2012 is round the corner! The theme this year is Children’s Literature. The event will host intercollegiate competitions on the first day and workshops and interactive sessions are scheduled for the second day.

Events on Day 1 (Monday, March 5)

9 am to 11 am: Prayer – Welcome address – Principal’s address – Keynote address by the Guest of Honour Ms. Sandhya Rao of Tulika Books (http://www.tulikabooks.com)

11 am to 1.30 pm: Competitions

1.30 pm to 2 pm: Lunch break

2 pm to 4 pm: Competitions

4 pm to 5 pm: Felicitation and Prize Distribution

Enterprise - Nissim Ezekiel Critical Appreciation

Enterprise – Nissim Ezekiel

Introduction:

Enterprise by Nissim Ezekiel is a satiric poem with a moral. It deals with pilgrimages which serve no useful purpose. The poet suggests that religious pilgrimages are a waste and snobbish. In ‘Enterprise’ which contains the two central metaphors of his poetry – pilgrimage and home – Ezekiel reveals his attitude of commitment. Besides, according to him, to please God one need not go on pilgrimages as He is within.

A Pilgrimage: Without Getting the Call:

The poem is in the form of a narrative. The narrator, the poet explains how he and some others started on a pilgrimage. The aim of the pilgrimage was to ennoble the minds and to make the burdens light. The pilgrimage had no hitch, to start with. While, at the second stage, they did not know whether they got a call at all. Obviously, they had started casually, and impulsively. It was very hot and they were unable to beat the heat. Thus they were physically unfit for the pilgrimage.

Mission Misunderstood by the Pilgrims:

The pilgrims visited various places of interest on the way and took down notes on the very humdrum aspects of life and on curiosities. Thus, ironically, the pilgrimage had started with a distraction. Obviously, the pilgrims had misunderstood their mission. Soon, differences arose among the members of the team over silly matters. The best intellectual among them left the team egotistically. This made the team gloomy.

Mist - M.T. Vasudevan Nair - Summary

Mist – M.T.Vasudevan Nair

The word anticipation would perhaps best describe the human condition today. The paramount anticipation for us is the next moment. What will that next moment bring? Will it bring pleasure or pain? Will it be perceived as good or bad, etc? Will it be filled with life or death? It is anticipation, the expectancy or the needing to know, needing to figure out, needing to understand, needing an answer that very simply is a root cause of all of our suffering.

When we anticipate something pleasurable, no matter what that is, be it a positive outcome, a positive relationship, we begin a prefabricated illusion that what we want and desire should happen to us.

The fragile mists of memories, emotions, and time weave through this haunting narrative, as the author takes us through the mindscape of the lead character of this novella – Vimala Devi. Vimala and Sudhir had once shared a passionate affair filled with promises. But nine years have passed as she continues to wait for a letter, a phone call, or a visit from him. Sharing her anticipation, is the boatman Buddhu, who is searching for his White father with the aid of only a faded photograph. Finally the story hovers around a sardarji, anticipating his death because of lung-cancer.

The Story in Brief:

Vimala Devi, was a 31 yr old Resident Tutor at a boarding school for Girls in the Kumaon Hill region of Uttar Pradesh.

It was April, and summer vacation had started in the boarding school and the boarders were leaving one by one in the last two days.

On the slope of the hill, beyond the boundaries of the boarding school was a cottage which was rented out to tourists. It was called “Golden Hook”. Just outside the “Golden Hook” was the meandering road on the slopes of the hill.

Signatures on the Sea Shore - C. Narayana Reddy

Poem Analysis

C. Narayana Reddy's tryst with words of wisdom is echoed beautifully in the first stanza of the poem. He tries to make a mark for himself in the whole ocean of universal art. In the process, he finds his imprints on sand being washed away by the white horse of waves with the hooves of the surf. The white horse symbolically refers to the incarnation of god himself, who helps him in the process of poetic creation. In short, the divine muse who inspires the poet is God himself manifested in the form of the white horse through the frothing waves of the ocean. The waves here symbolise unsettled emotions or emotional disturbances that prevent a thought from being born.

On entering the threshold of poetry, the poet is literally flabbergasted at the enormous waves that seek to rub against his signature.

In line 6, the poet draws sustenance for his poetry from the ocean which contains the elements of language needed to weave a fine piece of poem. It is language that comes from the soul, (not from the mind) that forms the body of his poetry, which is beautifully explicated in the lines “the anguish of my soul rises from the ocean”.

In his persistent attempt to win over the domain of the ocean of language, the poet deftly uses the image of the cavalry – (soldiers who fought mounted on horseback), and lays siege to the unnumbered melodies and thus gathers them together into a chant – a harmonious and rhythmical melody. The word “chant” indicates the divine nature of the inspiration, which the poet has obtained in his tryst with the universal art.

In line 14, the poet uses the knitting imagery, where he finds a harmonious knitting together of the waves in the ocean and the vapours of his heart. It speaks of the transcendental nature of the communion between man and nature that he has been able to create in his poems. The line “no, you can’t understand” speaks of the highly personal yet mystical nature of the experience of the poet which none else can fathom or try to understand.

In the penultimate stanza, the poet alludes to his inspiration and enthusiasm that he has got now, as a froth bubbling on and on, like the waves of the sea. Even though they are insignificant and very soft like the cotton, they are always there to give him the necessary spark and illumination to carve a fine piece of poem.

Russell's Relevance Today: "Education and Discipline" - A Critique

Call it sheer coincidence, or what you may, but, today, even as i was preparing for this essay by Bertrand Russell on Education and Discipline, given in 1935, little did i realise that it would have such a huge relevance to today’s academic environment. Even as chennaiites woke up this morning to the gory news of a teacher stabbed to death by a 15-year old boy who was upset because of the written remarks on his poor performance, The Hindu came out with an article that screamed “It’s time that school managements learnt a lesson!”.

The question is, who should teach the lesson? And at whose expense?

Well, let's have a peek into the great social critic Russell’s views on Education, which is part of my lesson plan for my II year Part II class.

According to Russell, the purpose of education is to civilize the individual, which is partly individual and partly social.

Apart from imparting general knowledge, technical skill etc which are intellectual qualities, and

Impartiality, kindliness, and self-control which are moral qualities, students should also be imparted the physiological quality of zest and joy of life.

Civil Services/NET/SLET Coaching

The UGC Sponsored Coaching Classes for Civil Services/NET/SLET exams have been a huge hit with students, going by preliminary attendance statistics. Indeed, it is a powerful indicator of the commitment latent within students, coupled with their zeal to excel, when provided with a chance. Compared to the strength in the first class, we thought, the strength would dwindle in the coming days. But, that wasn't the case to be. Rather, it has been growing from strength to strength over the days... Kudos to the students and the organisers.

Hope the enthusiasm remains...

National Seminar @ MCC

UGC Sponsored NATIONAL SEMINAR on Monday, 12 March 2012

in Post-Independence Indian Writing in English: Theory and Praxis

Organized by PG & Research Department of English
MADRAS CHRISTIAN COLLEGE (Autonomous)

CHENNAI – 600059, TAMIL NADU

ABOUT THE DEPARTMENT

One among the oldest departments in the country, the Department of English offers wide range of specializations under the credit based system. The syllabus under the credit system has integrated the conventional approach of exposing the student to period/genre based texts, literature of contemporary relevance and career based papers. The special papers offered at UG and PG levels are Women's Writing, Literary Theory and Criticism, Myth and Literature, Indian Theatre, Shakespearean Criticism, European Classics in Translation, ELT and Eco-literature.

PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL

We are happy to announce the publication of the second issue of our literary journal, Eclectic Representations in February 2012. [In Print]. Eclectic Representations ISSN 2231 - 430 X is a peer-reviewed biannual journal, which covers English literature from the time of Chaucer to the present day. It features scholarly essays on diverse literatures like British, American, and Indian

Happy Birthday to a Legend

Image courtesy: SeattlePi

Born in 1812, today is Charles Dickens' 200th birthday. No other writer with the exception of Shakespeare could have marshalled such a host of dramatis personae, as does Charles Dickens in his marvellous fictional creations. Indeed, every fictional character in Dickens has a marked individuality that is at once distinct and engaging, revealing the richness of his prolific creative genius. Indeed, Michael Slater, in his profound study entitled Dickens and Women describes Charles Dickens as the greatest creative genius in English literature of the last three hundred years. In short, he is called the greatest inventor of character after Shakespeare. In 1833, he began writing a series of sketches under the pseudonym of Boz. Soon, he started work on Pickwick Papers and a host of other unforgettable novels.  As much read, admired and loved as always, Dickens remains unrivalled in his style and diction, and will remain so in the years to come.

Happy Birthday Charles Dickens..!

I stumbled upon Claire Tomalin's beautiful letter to the master story-teller on his bicentennial celebrations, today, in The Guardian. btw, Tomalin is Dickens' biographer.

My dear Mr Dickens,

Happy 200th birthday! You yourself were not much given to celebrating anniversaries, but you did go to Stratford-upon-Avon in April 1864, with Robert Browning, Wilkie Collins and John

Commemoration Day Service

The Commemoration day thanksgiving service to commemorate the 175th year celebrations of the College, got off to a grand start with the audience rising to the song "O God Our Help in Ages Past.." The Principal welcomed the host of luminaries who adorned the Anderson Hall, which included past Principals, distinguished members of the alumni and Chairman of the MCC Association Dr.Besant C Raj.

In his commemoration address that followed, Dr.Besant Raj stressed the need for helping students to think on their own rather than to disseminate information from text books. Citing the example of Harvard Business School, his alma mater, he said that, at Harvard, not even a single lecture is delivered. The whole programme is taught only through the case method, where a real business situation is brought to the classroom in the form of a case study and the students have to play the role of managers and solve the problem. Each day a student solves three such business problems. The thrust is on developing analytical skills in their students to solve business problems than to provide them a lot of information on theories of business, he added.

India's institutions including IITs and IIMs do not find a place in the list of 200 top institutions of higher learning in the world, because of the fact that most Indian institutions of higher learning see themselves as disseminators of knowledge - from text books and lecture notes. 

He also stressed on the challenge from e-education, and wanted MCC to develop courseware in e-education in several disciplines. 

Going back to the time when he was a student at MCC, he spoke of his association with Dr.Alexander Boyd, then, the principal of the College. While a student, a resident of Selaiyur Hall, he was stricken with measles, a highly contagious disease. Hence the warden moved him to the isolation ward. While even his best friends would not visit him for fear of catching the disease, Dr.Boyd would come to the isolation ward - where he was the lone occupant, every morning without fail. He would sit on a stool beside his bed and chat for at least ten minutes before leaving for his day's work. This happened on all the  20 days in which he was in isolation. This action by Dr.Boyd deeply touched him and inspired him, he said.

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.