Assignments - Reg

Dear Students,

For all of you who have your assignments with me, kindly send me an e-copy of your abstracts/assignments. I shall get back to you shortly. Some of you have sent me your assignments  and am yet to reply you, as i am out of station. Shall get back to you all shortly. 

And, for those of you who are yet to submit your abstracts, you are expected to work on your full-length paper only after your abstracts are approved by your course teacher (SR).  

Postmodern Articulations:

The Two-day National Conference on “Post-modernism and Progressive India: Literary Articulations and Non-Literary Interventions” organised by Garden City College, Bangalore saw a host of luminaries inspire the myriad-minded scholars of all hues and shades drawn from 78 cities from across the country.

One of the salient features of the Conference was the excellent hospitality provided by the host institution which remains and will remain etched in our hearts in a long long time to come. Be it the hospitable volunteers at the reception desk, or the affable and affectionate staff members at the conference venue, or the catering students at the food department, or the gala entertainment provided by GCE students on both days of the Conference - it was ‘relishing’ all the way!

The first day saw a varied intellectual treat by scholars drawn from diverse fields. Dr.Poile Sengupta, one of the topmost promising English playwrights in India, spoke on women in theatre, from a linear, chronological point of view, tracing it down from the time of the Natya Shastra’s treatise on theatre way back in the 3^rd century BC. Although theatre has a solid 68% of women in the audience, when it comes to representation, it is a minimal 2:1 ratio, she opined.

The nature of women was 'stereotypically' classified into three types viz:

1)      Uttama (superior woman, calm, bears no malice, most excellent)

2)      Madhyama (jealous of her rivals, gets angry easily, intermediate)

3)      Adhama (inferior type of woman, harsh, angry for no reason, bears grudges always, evil, indifferent, neutral)

Celebrating Tribal Literatures across the World

The National Conference on “Tribal Literature: Across Continents and Cultures” organised by TJELLS and V.O.C College, Tuticorin, on 7 & 8 March 2013, was a pioneering attempt to study and to showcase the life and culture of the indigenous peoples around the world. Dr. Eric Miller from the World Story Telling Institute, in an interactive talk with the audience (along with Mr. Murugan Kani a tribal representative), kept the audience spell-bound by his depiction of tribal life and culture in Tamil Nadu.

Eric Miller’s talk was titled “Tribal Peoples as leaders of Society in a Future in which Fossil Fuels might be Scarce, with Special Reference to the Kani Tribal People of South India”.

Key Ideas from his talk:

The world's supply of 'Fossil Fuels' (oil, gas, coal etc) is depleting. It seems production of these resources in usable form has passed its peak, and these resources may become increasingly scarce and expensive in the coming years. The 'Hydrocarbon Age' began in the mid-1800s, with the coming of the wide-spread use of electricity and the "Industrial Revolution". It reached a peak around the year 2000, and we may now be on a downward slope. One estimate is that 30 years from now, we will have approximately half of the current supply-flow, and less and less after that. The term, "Peak Oil" refers to this idea. It seems the heart of the "Hydrocarbon Age" might be 1900-2100. In the coming time of possible "Energy Scarcity", Mainstream society and culture might do well to learn from Tribal society and culture regarding methods of recycling and salvaging resources, and living sustainably with nature. Tribal people tend to be expert in these areas. 

Biological, Linguistic and Cultural Diversity are valuable, and support each other.

Tribal methods of conserving and nurturing nature, living sustainably with nature, and recycling and salvaging materials, include

For residential huts, and also for huts for watchmen in fields of kilangu and other crops – strips of plants, bark and vines can be used to lash poles and beams together.

Areca-nut tree leaves, Bamboo leaves, Plantain leaves – can be used as toys (as a car that is pulled); for beating rice; and for thatch (tutti), woven for baskets, walls, roofs, doors, mats,

Honouring Distinguished Alumni @ MCC

Distinguished Alumni Series | First Edition

A Report

The first edition of the Distinguished Alumni series got off to a grand start at the Anderson Hall to a bright-eyed audience, bubbling at the brim, breaching barricades to see their best and brightest alumni being honoured by their alma mater!

Two illustrious alumni of our college were honoured on the occasion – Mr. T. N. Seshan IAS, and Ms. Chandrika Tandon.

Others present included Dr. Besant C. Raj, Ms. Savithri Devanesan, Dr. Francis Sounderraj, Mr. K. Mammen and other well-wishers of the College.

The Principal Dr. Alexander Jesudasan, welcomed the gathering and said that MCC has the oldest alumni association in the India. He praised the Alumni Association of MCC, which was 'founded in 1891 by Rev. Dr. William Miller and has seen some of its greatest luminaries including the President of India and the Chief Election Commissioner in its Hall of Fame.

Lauding the achievements of our alumni, he said - 

“Prestige and esteem come to people who are in good positions, but our alumni have given prestige and esteem to the positions that they have occupied”.

Dr. Besant C. Raj commended Ms. Chandrika Tandon for donating a whopping $ 100,000 to her alma mater MCC, and also had a word of praise for Mr. T. N. Seshan.

A college which had a mere 15 women in its rolls in its founding days, now has women students outnumbering their men counterparts in all disciplines, which is a meteoric rise, and well-deserved,

he added.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Mammen said –

It was Dr. Chandran Devanesan who inaugurated a separate office (APRO) devoted to the alumni in the mid 60s.

The dynamic growth of MCC is its 1) inherent strength to connect. 2) its achievements and 3).

Its resilience to face the challenges of the future.

Welcoming Ms. Chandrika who was his contemporary who was always seen with a guitar singing ‘Dum Maro Dum’. “Her secular work and her social responsibility has found echo in her soulful music,”

he signed off.

Mr. Davidar IAS, introduced Mr. Seshan. Eulogising him as the Father of Electoral Reforms in India, he said -

Mr. Seshan graduated in BSc Physics in 1952.

He was a resident of Selaiyur Hall, and then became a demonstrator of Physics in MCC for three years, when he was a resident staff in Heber Hall for one year and in St. Thomas’s for two years, and later joined the IAS in 1955.

After assuming a lot of important portfolios, he went on to become Cabinet Secretary which is the senior most position in Indian Civil Service hierarchy.

He received 40,000 + false election returns and disqualified more than 14,000 potential candidates.

From 1990 to 1996, he brought about a wide range of changes especially in Voter Awareness Campaigns.

For the first time ever, he appointed Expenditure Observers, who probed the expenses of candidates in elections.

He also took initiatives to ban graffiti. Moreover, under Shri T. N. Seshan there was, for the first time, a phased conduct of elections in India. He was also responsible for Shri Rajiv Gandhi’s visit to MCC in its 150th year,

he added.

Speaking on the momentous occasion, Mr. Seshan fondly remembered the events leading up to his admission in MCC. His speech was laced with his inimitable eloquence, charm and sense of humour. He said - 

Joining MCC was quite accidental. In fact, I made the mistake of scoring 150/150 in maths, physics and chemistry, and with such good marks, I thought I would get a seat in engineering, effortlessly.

You see, the gentleman who interviewed me for the engineering seat asked in Tamil,

‘Do you know Sivaji Ganesan.’

I answered, ‘Yes’. But unfortunately, in the very next question, he failed me.

Well, he had asked me, “How many movies did Sivaji star in?”

To this question I flunked.

Not having got an engineering seat, I rushed back to MCC. Back then, you could get your Master’s Degree for just Rs.30,

said Mr. Seshan.

Ms. Chandrika Tandon, recollected the adventurous ways in which she gained admission in MCC.

She said –

Well, I had to go on a kinda ‘hunger strike’ to get into Madras Christian College. Well, that’s because my mother had other plans for me. She wanted me to join Stella Maris College, which was quite close to my house, and she didn’t want me to go to MCC because, it was considered a boys’ college.

Since I was the first daughter of the house, and also since I had to take a long train journey to reach MCC, my mother was against my wishes. But again, I wanted to pursue my BCom in MCC, because, my father and my grandfather studied in MCC.

That’s how I was released into the wild of Madras Christian College.

But most of the credits I owe to my grandfather, as he was quite instrumental in getting me into college. My sister Indra Nooyi, who is also an alumnus of the college, and I would sit on a little brown stool and listen to him read original plays and poems,”

she said.

Picture Courtesy: Mr. Srinath, The Hindu

The Indian Cinema - K.M. Munshi - Critical Summary

Introduction:

K. M. Munshi is the founder of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. In this essay, “Indian Cinema” he talks about the evils that have plagued Indian cinema, and expresses dissatisfaction at the growth of cinema in India. He choses the Hindi movie titled “Hunterwali”, a 1935 film featuring Nadia as the heroine, as representative of the malady of Indian cinema, and how Nadia makes a mockery of Indian womanhood in the film.

Sweet Sixteen without its Sweetness:

This wandering homeless orphan girl, though by appearance thirty, tries to play the pranks of ‘sweet sixteen’ but without its sweetness, charm or modesty. She rushes about on horse-back, and then goes around performing stunts like jumping over a moving carriage and then defeating 20 soldiers in one sweep with an irritating style.

Disgusting and Indecent:

A zamindar’s son, also looking about thirty, attracted by her, acts like a vagabond. They are shown as making love to each other, but without charm, grace or dignity. Their love-making takes the form of shameless freedom of bodily contact, difficult indeed to find in real life, except among the ill-bred. They both jostle each other, throw each other down, fling sand in each other’s eyes. In short, they do everything which would be enjoyable if they had been a boy and girl of eight; it is disgusting to adults, and unthinkable as a normal relation between men and women of decent upbringing.

An Evening with Arvind Mehrotra

Arvind Mehrotra addressing the gathering at MIDS

Arvind Mehrotra, eminent poet, translator and literary critic, based in Mumbai, was in the city to give a series of lectures on Indian Writing in English. This evening at MIDS, he spoke extensively on eminent poet Arun Kolatkar within the framework of bilingual writers in India.

Tracing Arun Kolatkar’s tryst with poetry in the early 50s, Arvind Mehrotra said, “In the year 2004, he (Arun) gave me the list of poems he tried to write in both languages – Marathi and English, a line of Marathi followed by its English translation alternating in each line, which made Arvind Mehrotra himself marvel at this strange creature called “Arvind Mehrotra.” Hadn’t he written his English poetry, he’d have been a great artist

Noble Ideas from Great Minds...

I happened to read Economy of Permanence by Dr. J. C. Kumarappa, [Mahatma Gandhi’s economist], who is credited with coining the term ‘Gandhian economics’, a remarkable school of thought based on Gandhism. This book was a sweet grab at the Chennai Book Fair this year, as I was simultaneously working on an ecocritical reading of an author close to my heart.

I was attracted more by the subtitle of this book which reads: “A quest for a social order based on non-violence”. Ecoenthusiasts, ecocritics and nature lovers alike have constantly emphasised the need for the creation of an ecocentric social order/world view that would be an alternative paradigm for the environmental problems of today. In the same vein, an alternative economic-social order based on non-violence merits a serious reading in itself, and more so, because, in today's world scenario, no economist would dare talk or write on such a topic, which, for him would be tabooo to the core!

The highlight of the book, is that, the great M. K. Gandhi himself has written the foreword for his close friend, with his signature affixed below it, and the words “On the train to Bombay, 20-8-1945” beside it.

Now, a few thoughts started disrupting my reading process. And, it so happened that, I discussed my thoughts on this book, at length with a few of my good colleagues, who augmented my 'apprehensions' in this regard. Hence this blogpost!

First of all, the plethora of knowledge emanated by these two great  visionaries and captured in these books, reflect, the sincerity and commitment of two great minds of the past, towards the cause of nation-building. In days when telephones and other communication facilities were quite a rarity, here are two great

Mo Yan - A Writer with a Social Conscience!

Mo Yan! [Don’t Speak]

One among the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Sir Alfred Nobel in the year 1895, the Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded annually, [since 1901] to an author from any country who has ‘produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction’.

Since then, each year, the Nobel Prize for Literature is fraught with high drama, much enthusiasm and eventually ends up with a lot of surprise!

Last year was no exception. Among the 210 nominations, with 46 first-timers, there were a host of celebrity contenders like Bob Dylan, [who has been nominated many times since 1997], J. K. Rowling, Don DeLillo, Japanese writer Haruki Murakami, William Trevor etc, with the odds heavily favouring Haruki Murakami and Irish writer William Trevor.

In this high-stake scenario, Mo Yan was considered an insignificant entry and odds were not favourably disposed towards him.

But but but... the Swedish Academy thought otherwise! And, their decision made a ‘farm boy’ in ‘far-away China’ feel ‘like a fairy-tale’, ‘giving him a garland to grace his head and presenting him with a glorious crown’, as he himself eulogises in his Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech.

Mo Yan, the dark horse for this year’s Nobel Prize is obviously China’s first literary Nobel Laureate. At the famous Frankfurt Book Fair, Mo, while strongly advocating the writer’s right to express criticism and indignation at the dark side of society and the ugliness of human nature, commented, ‘some may want to shout out on the street, but we should tolerate those who hide in their rooms and use literature to voice their opinions’.

Mo Yan is his pseudonym, which translates to ‘don’t speak’ in Chinese, was because of his father’s advice to him during the time of the Cultural Revolution, and was meant to remind himself ‘not to be too frank’ when speaking in mainland China. However, his works have always been frankly crude about the darker side of Chinese society, especially the countryside and showcase the ugliness of human nature in their struggle with wars, quest for survival, and passion for sex accompanied by all its brutal aggressions. 

Mo is indeed a writer with a social conscience who deftly dabbles between being a dissident and being politically correct in a socialist state known for its no-nonsense approach towards political writing of any sort. Mo Yan gives vent, albeit cautiously to this predicament of being a writer in China, in his Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech.

The Nobel Prize this year had its cloud of controversies too. While it has always been the case that the Nobel Prize in Literature be given to writers who vehemently oppose ideological and political repression by the state, and represent, through their oeuvre the voice of the marginalised and the oppressed sections of society, it indeed is a bolt from the blue that Mo Yan, who is in the good books of the Communist regime, was given the award, provoking a spontaneous vituperative remark by Nobel recipient Herta Muller, who not only denounced the prize given to Mo Yan, but also openly accused him of ‘complicity in Chinese political repression’. But Mo Yan is and has always been equivocal about his convictions: 

For Mo Yan, his ethical sensibilities can vibe well with the his aesthetic sensibilities, but can never foray into the political domain, which, according to him, is not the domain of the true artist. Hence it is no surprise that this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature was shrouded with controversies. His dissidents say that Mo Yan, has strong ties with the Chinese Communist Party, and hence this honour is not justified. 

One prominent dissident writer from China, Ma Jian was very harsh on Mo Yan. Accusing Mo of playing into the hands of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), he said, ‘Writers like Mo Yan may show a little criticism of Chinese society in their novels, but when the literary community in China is hurt, as it was with the arrest of Liu Xiaobo, they don’t write about it. They say Liu Xiaobo isn’t an author, he’s concerned only with politics’. 

However, one cursory look at his oeuvre gives us a profound insight into his insightful themes, his solemn setting, and his amazing narrative style, making us commend the wisdom of the Swedish Academy in awarding him the most coveted literary prize.

As Anders Hallengren, Editor, Nobel Laureates in Search of Identity and Integrity points out, several Nobel laureates of Literature have focussed on the difference between their identity as an author and their identity as a social being. This aspect of their creative selves makes them living in, as it were, two different and quite distinct worlds. There is a distance between them that is bridged only in the literary work, where these two worlds are intimately connected and presuppose one another. Mo Yan is no exception. His novels are more of social documentaries, narrating the stories of the ordinary Chinese people growing up in poverty and repression in rural China and their untold bitter hardships endeared during World War II and under the communist regimes. His best-known novel Red Sorghum: A Novel of China, which was also made into a successful feature film, catapulted him to instant fame. He became an instant national sensation and an household name in China ever since.

The Dickensian trait of social realism is indeed the hallmark of his novels. Most of his novels are set in Gaomi County, the semi-fictional landscape reminiscent of the Northeast Township of Shandong where he grew up. Critics have also drawn parallels between his Gaomi County and William Faulkner’s fictional Mississippi County of Yoknapatawpha.

Growing up amidst repression, deprivation and brutality of Maoist extremism, Mo had dropped out of school at the tender age of 11, and by age 18, joined an oil factory. And while he was just 20, he was recruited by the People’s Liberation Army. His literary endeavours first saw the light of day in the form of a short story which came out in 1981 under the pen name of Mo Yan. From then on, it was no stopping Mo. Mo Yan indeed has an amazing sense of artistic description, and he was highly prolific with words.

He wrote his most famous novel Red Sorghum in 1987. The novel is based on a young woman in a rural village in China’s eastern province. Set against the backdrop of the Sino-Japanese war, the novel extols the bravery of the village-folk in combating the Japanese soldiers, and the ‘liberation of the individual spirit’ from the repression of the proletariat spirit.

His most important novel Big Breasts and Wide Hips, brings out the feminist in Mo. Being a feminist in mainland China is not easy, and Mo rather weaves with aplomb the predicament of the anxieties of the protagonist, Mother, who was born during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, at a time when a woman got her value and status in society only if she got married, and had male children. Mother, has nine children, and only one among them is a boy. The author contrasts the pampered, spoilt boy with his strong and sprightly sisters. The epic story which extends to more than 60 years, finally revolves around mother who continues to raise her children and the children of her children without much ado, in spite of the bleak economical circumstances and the devastations caused by the wars.

His next important novel The Garlic Ballads talks about the hand-to-mouth existence of the garlic-farming peasants in rural China, and about the organised state-sponsored violence against the farmers of Paradise County. In the first place, the communist regime goes about encouraging farmers of the county to plant garlic, promising attractive yields. But, due so surplus yield, and because of high taxes coupled with the high-handedness of the government, the crops are left to rot in their fields, eventually resulting in mob fury, the consequent storming of a government compound and how the government steps in with horrifying effects, forms the crux of the story.

It has always been the tradition of the Chinese government to censure all forms of writing. Hence, writers who failed to integrate with the Communist ideologies of the government have always been ‘hauled up’ and given harsh treatment. Take for example the case of his fellow laureate from China, Xiaobo, [dubbed as the ‘Chinese Mandela’ by his avid fans], who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010. He was accused of subversion, imprisoned without a proper trial and is now undergoing a 11-year prison sentence. 

Mo, in his Nobel Acceptance Speech, speaks about this stifling sense of subterfuge unleashed on the writing community by the communist government and the challenges he had to face to put across his ideas daringly to the mainline readers.

Says he: ‘My greatest challenges come with writing novels that deal with social realities, such as The Garlic Ballads, not because I am afraid of being openly critical of the darker aspects of society, but because heated emotions and anger allow politics to suppress literature and transform a novel into reportage of a social event’. It’s no wonder then that all his novels are placed in the past, with a touch of hallucinatory realism, interweaving myth, folk tale and magic, so as to avoid confrontations of any sort with the current communist establishment is a question that remains to be answered!

 ‘I am the sum of my books’, says Nobel Laureate V. S. Naipaul. Mo Yan and his books fit this quote to a tee. One who had this deep conviction for social change anchored within his identity as an author. The very fact that he identifies with his plethora of characters in his works makes his works all the more endearing to his avid readers and the world community at large. Indeed, his works reflect a wider vision of emancipation of the individual emerging from a local conclave, subsuming social realism, transcending the tyranny of politics, and painting with conviction in the process the black humour that blends bitterness and sarcasm the absurdities and corruption that plague modern China.

- Samuel Rufus, S. “A Farm Boy in Far-away China”, Cuckoo, International Literary Magazine, Department of English, V. O. C. College, Tuticorin, January 2013. Print. 6-13. ISSN: 22309691

Deprivation/Destitution and Inclusive Growth

Jan Breman at the lectern, with Sashi Kumar, N.Ram and Shree Kumar on the dais

The TG Narayanan Memorial Lecture 2013 delivered today, at 6:15 pm, by Dr. Jan Breman on Caring for Destitution or Not? was an eye-opener for students of journalism and audience alike. 

The Lecture series, organised by the Asian College of Journalism was presided over by Mr. N. Ram, Trustee, Media Development Foundation and well-attended by students of journalism, invitees from other institutions among a host of other dignitaries.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Ram recollected Mr.T.G.Narayanan’s services in the field of journalism, particularly with The Hindu as its Rangoon correspondent and then as the Calcutta correspondent where his outstanding work in covering the Bengal famine was much appreciated and is still much talked about. 

While lamenting the poor role of the news media in covering chronic hunger in the hinterlands, he also stressed on the importance of journalists in cultivating a sense of proportion/balance in their coverage of news. 

Mere trivialisation of news is not journalism, he averred, and added on a sad note that, the general tendency in Indian journalism today was to avoid presenting the gloomy side, and instead, they keep presenting the brighter side alone. But that should not be the case. In his concluding remarks, he sounded a note of caution to the journalism fraternity, saying, 'you can study anything under the sun, but you can’t be a good journalist unless you cover deprivation'!

The speaker of the day Dr. Jan Breman spoke extensively about his research on the area of deprivation in the Indian State of Gujarat. Excerpts from his lecture:

Members of the audience, absorbed and spell-bound..! Dr. Lakminarayanan, Dept of Physics, & Dr. Ganesh, Dept of English, MCC in pic! - clicked by this blogger. :-)

My presentation will focus on West India where I have carried out fieldwork in both rural and urban localities during the past half century. From the pre-colonial era onwards members of the tribal caste called Halpati in south Gujarat used to be attached as farm servants to the main landowners of higher castes. Engaged in a condition of bondage they had a right to livelihood and received social benefits in exchange for serving their patrons dutifully and loyally in a relationship of life time duration which was passed on from generation to generation.

The CLRI Auditorium, Adyar

In rural Gujarat, the greatest political capital was made out of the state pension for which old and disabled agricultural workers qualified who lived in destitution. In 1981 the then Congress government launched this scheme as an election stunt. A few years later, it declared that the state pension would be paid to all aged and handicapped workers without adult children and with no means of their own. They would be entitled to receive 50 rupees per person per month and 100 rupees per family, an allowance which was doubled in 1991. Although insufficient for survival, such trifles would alleviate the plight of all those unable to sustain themselves.

I have monitored in the area of my research the impact of the Social Security Bill passed in parliament in late 2008 and meant to alleviate the destitution of the most vulnerable categories, specifically old aged men and women, widows, and handicapped adults and minors belonging to households which have a priority ranking in the bpl ist (i.e scoring between 0 and 16). 

Of such households stuck far below the threshold of deprivation in the four villages of my longitudinal research in south Gujarat not yet one out of five qualify for benefits that should have been made available to them under the social security bill. It means that the large majority of the non-labouring poor are excluded from their legal dues. 

But more deprived from receiving entitlements than the old aged and widows are the disabled, a substantial category which barely figures in the government statistics. The provision of state benefits in the villages of my recurrent anthropological fieldwork have been rechecked by the staff of a rural hospital with a long standing practice of community health interventions in the vicinity. Local-level based animators belonging to the milieu of the poor themselves were selected and trained to conduct a survey. 

They were asked to go around in the village of their residence – four, of which two are also the sites of my own fieldwork – to identify all inhabitants who are improvident and unable to take care of their own maintenance, to help preparing the files of all those who are potential beneficiaries and to facilitate the processing of their applications by the district authorities. 

In the survey carried out in the first half of 2012 a total of 589 persons (all of them old aged, widowed or deserted women and handicapped) were listed irrespective of their bpl status and meeting or not the formal criteria required to become eligible for a benefit, eg. Scoring not above 16 in the bpl ranking, having no adult son, in the case of widows an annual income of less than 2,400 rupees, and handicapped for more than 80 per cent of their abilities. 

It means that out of the total population in these four villages roughly 7 per cent would have to be classified as destitute. It is a rather low estimate, in my opinion, caused by a style of work and life which makes the labouring poor vulnerable to an inordinately high morbidity and premature death rate. Of males in particular, as indicated by the very large proportion of females found in destitution, not less than four fifth of the 589 identified. 

From this total, only 118, or one out of five, comply with the formal criteria set for granting the stipulated cash benefit, but out of this number only 38 managed to become registered as beneficiaries.

The cash benefit, that comes as a prize for the fortunate ones is what amounts to a lottery, moderates but fails to end destitution because it does not even allow them to satisfy their most minimal needs. The money orders for what are meant to be monthly allowances are sent with long, variable intervals in between and this irregularity adds to the uncertainty that the benefits will continue to be disbursed. Recipients are not informed why their entitlements are suddenly withdrawn. 

This may happen when a minor son reaches the age of 21 years, since he is henceforth supposed to take care of his widowed mother or aged parents. In other instances there is no good reason for abrupt stopping payment. Can this be attributed to a temporary problem, lack of sufficient expertise, which will be over once the agencies involved in making the remittances become better versed with what they have to do?

It's raining books here...

Dr. Ganesh, browsing through the CUP Collection on display at the Chennai Book Fair

The 36^th Chennai Book Fair got off to a grand start on 11 January 2013 at the YMCA Physical Education College Grounds, and the Fair was formally inaugurated by the School Education Minister. This year saw a shift in venue from St. George’s School grounds, (as the traffic police had refused permission here owing to Metro Rail work), and the first day saw teething problems as regards parking and other basic amenities. Security men were in a tizzy frantically trying to control the crowd that went berserk towards evening owing to poor traffic management and the apathy of the security wards.

The sprawling campus was being spruced up on day ONE, and to facilitate effective business, RBI had erected a stall for people to get 5 Re/10 Re coins in bulk quantity, apart from sensitising people about identifying fake currency. This year saw an increase of more than a hundred stalls, which speaks to the burgeoning bibliophile base in Chennai, the education capital of India. A majority of the stalls catered to the Tamil audience followed closely by English, which could boast of 127 stalls. Tamil celebrity stalls include ones by Ananda Vikatan (which saw a remarkable influx of avid readers), Osho, JK, etc. English stalls displayed great variety, and Cambridge University Press attracted the maximum visitors. British Council gave away membership with attractive offers, and it was a runaway success for them. OUP books, Orient Blackswan, JAICO etc were some of the other publishers who had a good number of customers flocking by the dozen.

The First Edition of the T. G. Narayanan Memorial Lecture - A Report

Professor Gauri Viswanathan releasing the fourth issue of Eclectic Representations

The first of the TG Narayanan Memorial Lecture Series, organised by the PG & Department of English, Madras Christian College, was indeed a trendsetter of sorts! 

It's quite rare in the annals of memorial lectures to have such a committed audience of academics and research scholars throng in so enthusiastic a fashion to ardently listen to the lecture of Professor Gauri today, [Friday, 21 December, 2012] at the grand Media Studies Auditorium. 

As our Principal rightly pointed out, the occasion was indeed a fitting finale to the 175th anniversary year-long celebrations which began in right earnest in the first week of January 2012. 

Gauri Viswanathan, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University, focussed on English Studies in the era of globalisation, and assessed the impact of postcolonialism in literature. Eminent personalities from all over India were present in large numbers, and the Media Studies Auditorium was packed to capacity even before the lecture had started. 

Staff and students from many city colleges made a bee-line to listen to the eminent academic, Gauri Viswanathan, on her maiden lecture in Chennai in a long time. Dr. C. T. Indra, Dr. Hoshang Merchant, Mr. N. Ravi (brother of Mr. N. Ram, The Hindu), were among the host of luminaries present. Dr. Stephen, the Head of the Department, welcomed the gathering, and Dr. Ganesh, President, The English Association, introduced the Chief Guest of the day. After the Principal's inaugural address, Mr. N. Ranga Narayanan elaborated on the lecture series, paying rich encomiums to his father, in whose name this endowment has been instituted. 

Renowned Professor Gauri Viswanathan, [Colleague of Gayatri Spivak, at Columbia University], gave a profound and highly engaging lecture on "English Studies in Postcolonialism and Global History." 

The occasion also saw the release of two anthologies of poems, and the fourth issue of our peer-reviewed Journal Eclectic Representations. Eclectic Representations Vol. 2, Issue 2 was released by Dr. Gauri Viswanathan.  

An anthology of poems titled Ignis Regina by Ms. Roseline Victoria was released by the Principal, and the second anthology of poems by Ms. Sai Shri, R, of III BSc Pbt class, titled Relationships, was released by the Bursar. 

The lecture was followed by a wholesome lunch for all the delegates at the Staff tiffin room. 

After the lecture, the second Editorial Board of Eclectic Representations met at the Department of English staff room at 2 pm. Dr. Dwight Atkinson (Purdue University), Dr. Rajeevnath Ramnath (Assumption University, Thailand), Dr. Armstrong, Head, Dept of English, University of Madras, Prof. Latha, (Stella Maris College), Dr. Stephen Jebanesan, Dr. Ganesh, Prof. David Albert, Prof. Monsingh, Vidya Venkat (Media Representative), and Editors of our students' journal Incisive Insights, Mr. Udhayaraj, Ms. Divya & Ms. Anlin Steida, were among those who were present. It was decided to reconstitute the board with effect from the next issue, and many resolutions were passed, and minuted. Dr. Joseph Dorairaj, Member of the Board, called up at 2 pm to give his wishes for the Board Meet. Sir had already expressed his inability to attend, due to a pressing commitment.

Excerpts from Professor Gauri Viswanathan's lecture - 

I shall try to draw a larger picture on the shape of English studies today, and its changes over time, and reflect on the changing face of English studies on Globalisation, and assess its impact on postcolonialism on its future shape. It’s never easy charting the transformations in English studies as the very nature of change is to produce new forms whose relation to earlier ones is sometimes so opaque that we would be hard-pressed to find any idea of systematic development in the evolution of English studies. 

The difficulty is compounded by the fact that the multiple histories of English literary study, while effaced at the moment when English enters the syllabus becomes part of the credentialising of citizens and subjects and is established as the certifiable basis of heritage and competence. As a number of critics have pointed out, English Studies is a relatively old discipline, and it is not hard to believe that English Studies has a 115 year history behind it.  ...

How to appreciate a daffodil, without even seeing one, is often being pointed out as the quintessence of colonial education. Jamaica Kincaid’s novel Lucy, is a coming-of-age narrative where the protagonist Lucy was forced to memorise a poem about daffodils. Lucy could not appreciate the beauty of the daffodils because they did not grow on her island. 

The daffodils represents her alienation from her education and from her roots. Today, the daffodils is appreciated more for its poetic efflorescence, and people hardly study it as a botanical specimen. This is the kind of reflection that goes on in the novel, the kind of huge gap between knowledge that accrues from books and the social milieu and the knowledge that one gets through the imagination. 

So for the very first time when Lucy gets to see the daffodils, she immediately wants to kill them, because she identifies the daffodils with conquest and subjugation, not with beauty and with pleasure. In fact, the daffodil now reminds her of her own state of colonial subjugation.

In conclusion, Professor Gauri emphasised on the need to turn the text into a simulacra of the world, and to regain the world to other imagines that recapture the text from a point outside the institution.

Prakriti Poetry Fest'12

Noted poet Arundhati Subramaniam, at the Prakriti Poetry Festival 2012 @ MCC

The Prakriti Poetry Fest'12 organised by The English Association, MCC, took off to a flying start today [17 Dec] with noted poet Arundhati Subramaniam reciting her poems to an eager audience of poetry-enthusiasts, at the Indoor theatre, Selaiyur Hall. Renowned Sri Lankan poet Cheran also read out his poems, followed by the poet Rahul Soni.

Business English Certificate - Training - Reg.

BUSINESS ENGLISH CERTICIATE (BEC)

          [Batch VIII]

from Monday, 03 December 2012

Companies/Organisations/Institutions today are seeking employees with English language skills to help them compete internationally.

Give yourself a vital advantage by making sure you have the language skills

that employers are looking for.

Cambridge English: Business English Certificate (BEC) is an internationally recognised language system for describing/assessing language ability.

“Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.” – Henry Van Dyke

Dear Students (past and present),

This is the FIRST call for sending in your creative writings/paintings for the fourth issue of Cornucopia. The fourth issue is being designed on a still grander scale, and we thank all of you who have sent in your articles thus far. We shall be acknowledging all of you shortly via email. The last date for receipt of your creative writings/paintings is Saturday, 08 December 2012. You may send in your entries to cornucopiamcc@gmail.com

Who can contribute: All students of MCC (past and present)

Guidelines: Cornucopia welcomes any original unpublished work that can spark human consciousness – appropriate, elegant, innovative and original. Kindly avoid sending in overtly/harshly critical articles/cartoons that violate the ethos and decorum of the Department/College.

Do not forget to key-in both your full name (and/or your pen name(s) if any), and mention specifically how you’d wish to be acknowledged in the name-line.

Viewing the Pre-final Copy: A pre-final copy of the fourth issue will be made available in the Department of English on Monday, 10 December 2012 from 10 am to 3 pm. All contributors are welcome to browse through the same and notify the Editorial team of changes/corrections, if any, straightaway.