'Apple-tree summers give birth to new ideas. People tread new paths'

Olga |A Deserving Winner

Right from the very instant when Polish writer Olga Tokarczuk’s name began flashing across our screens as the winner of the 2018 Nobel Prize for Literature - myself, like most of our tribe, badly madly wanted to get hold of one or a few of her writings, to get to know more about her!

By fortuitous coincidence, as luck would have it, I stumbled upon one of her novels, which is also unanimously hailed as her masterpiece, and it is titled, Primeval and Other Times.

It proved to be a real unputdownable read of sorts, and i bet you could really finish it off in a single sitting, what with just around 166 pages on it in toto! 

The novel brilliantly weaves into its fabric the lives of three generations of the Niebieski / Boski family of the little Polish town of Primeval. Alongside, Olga also simultaneously traces the experiences of the inhabitants of Primeval, a land that’s got such a harmonious interconnected relationship with Nature.

Yes, an Ecocritical reading or a Bioregional reading would sure click big time on this Olga read, you bet!

In Primeval, then, Olga gently leads her reader by the hand into a wonderful rural landscape, a community that lives in close harmony with Nature. Her descriptions of the rich flora and fauna of this rural community, are so intense and gripping. What’s so beautiful about her Nature-descriptions are the awesome analogies that she so casually strews across her passages.

'In tones of examination-oriented pedantry...!'

Peter Handke | Nobel Laureate 2019

Even while he was still a student, Peter Handke (the newest Nobel Laureate in Literature, 2019) had started out on his tryst with the pen, writing his heart out every now and then! I restate the phrase: ‘Even when he was still a student!’ Enough motivation and inspiration for our students to wield the magic wand! 

There has been no turning back for Peter and his muse ever since! And now with the prestigious Nobel Prize in his kitty, his way with words - creating worlds through words - has been such a rewarding one, both to his art and to his heart as well!

Peter Handke is an Austrian novelist, playwright and translator.

In this essay, Handke uses the  ‘question-and-answer’ dialogue-mode, to highlight the various types of fatigue! This post wishes to highlight in particular the tiredness and fatigue of our pavapetta student in class, which I guess would be so reminiscent of our own student days! 

So here goes some excerpts for y’all - 

'I will fly to thee, Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards, But on the viewless wings of Poesy!'

A Literary Being | A Few Guidelines

Have you ever wondered or pondered a while on the amazing power of art over us all? Well, yes! Art has this wonderful power to liberate and set free our souls from its mind-forged manacles, its fetters and its shackles, ain’t it?

This post, the second in a multi-part series, seeks to offer valuable guidelines to help cultivate in the student of literature, their very own sweet creative vibes, with originality in their style and creativity in their substance! 

This liberative power of art as panacea then, has such sweet therapeutic effects galore on the soul! One reason why Keats addresses the nightingale in like fashion -

I will fly to thee, Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards, But on the viewless wings of Poesy!

Indeed, the creative wings of poesy help liberate him from the fetters and shackles of this present feverish, frettish world and stay high high above, and far far away from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife!

So yup! How on heaven does art liberate the soul?

When art is done for heart’s sake!

No wonder then that this ‘true blue literary spirit’, find mention in Act 1, Scene 1 of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar: we are ‘menders of bad soles!’

Literary surgeons then we are! Something to the likes of a medical surgeon!

And pray how do we nobly and ably do justice to our vocation?

Herein below, me thought of outlining a few simple steps that would help a great measure in ‘testing our call’ and doing full justice to our role in this life as literary beings!

First and foremost, let’s take pride in the fact that we create entire worlds through our way with words! Indeed, skeletons of ages past, right from memories of our grandma's days,  grandpa's house, or our childhood days come teeming with life in full flesh and blood in our representations, ain't they? 

There’s immense power in those worlds that we seek to carve and to create through our words, ain’t it? Goes without saying why great artists have been great therapists and healers in great measure!

Medicines may heal the body, but literature heals the soul!

So yes! Art liberates! True art liberates the soul to the fullest possible degree!

Every literary being then, is a gifted artist by default! A creator by default!

This said, shall we, as a first baby step, try to make a bonfire of, or try to get rid of, all those lacklustre, meanish, crappy, sloppy, slipshod forwards that come down to us in our personal whatsapp / social media walls! A true blue literary being will never stoooop this low to take time off their schedules, to forward crappy stuff that does not gel with their vibes and their blithe spirits!

As the saying goes, Never Rob Peter to pay Paul! Either you pay Paul from your own wallet, ;-) or better ask Peter for his permission to help you pay your dues to Paul, making fully sure that you acknowledge Peter in the process! Never rob a pavapetta Peter to pay Paul! That’s real disgusting and demeaning for a true blue literary being!

'To look needs no philosophy, no teacher. Nobody need tell you how to look. You just look!'

On DOORS | A Humanities Monthly E-Magazine

Jidduji asks us all a very intriguing, pertinent and highly perceptive question, which also doubles up as a clarion call to us all -

Can you and I, then, bring about in ourselves without any outside influence, without any persuasion, without any fear of punishment - can we bring about in the very essence of our being a total revolution, a psychological mutation, so that we are no longer brutal, violent, competitive, anxious, fearful, greedy, envious and all the rest of the manifestations of our nature which have built up the rotten society in which we live our daily lives?  

Well, then,  as Jidduji asks us all, is a total revolution possible in the very essence of our being? 

Can we do our little might to the transformation of hearts and minds? 

Could we do our little might to liberate hearts and minds from the fetters and the shackles that constrain them?

On a similar vein, to a similar beat, Bhuva aka Bhuvanesh Santharam has been carrying on with this noble mission for quite some time now! A student of II MA English at MCC, Bhuva has been hugely inspired by renowned poet Gieve Patel. His poems have such an intense ‘reality of representment’ to their feel, their form and their texture.

A profound Jidduji admirer [like myself], Bhuva has an amazing way with words. As Jidduji says,

To be able to look at this seems to me all that is needed, because if we know how to look, then the whole thing becomes very clear, and to look needs no philosophy, no teacher. Nobody need tell you how to look. You just look.

And Bhuva’s highly perceptive way of seeing and perceiving life have taken shape in the form of wonderful musings.

The result is, a lovely platform of sorts to rock the floor, and it’s titled, DOORS.

DOORS is a Humanities-oriented monthly e-magazine that sports profound musings of all hues with such lustre and vibrancy.

Reading through the posts in DOORS you are sure to get introduced to an ensemble of sorts that awaits y’all!

The icing on the cake I would say, is the interview that DOORS Magazine has done with the guitarist of 3000AD, a three piece thrash metal band based in Christchurch, New Zealand. 3000AD’s guitarist is in his elements obliging Bhuva for every question that was shot at him! And both interviewer and interviewee have done their bestest in bringing out their best for the reader!

‘It is an art only my generation knows!’ opens Sharon Thomas’s impressions on ‘Clockwise and Anticlockwise’! A delightful rumination worth an intense ponder.

A host of other delightful reads also await the ardent reader!

'The mind-forged manacles I hear!'

On True Liberation | Literary Vignettes

While reading through Jiddu Krishnamurti’s Freedom from the Known, I was so inspired by some of his mighty musings on true liberation and its connect with the ‘mind!’

Inspired me much-o-much to do a little series on vignettes from the literary arena - vignettes that bespeak to the extraordinary power contained within the liberated mind and heart! 

Says Jidduji, ‘You have to be your own teacher and your own disciple!’

Face the fact; look at yourself! Do not run away from yourself! The moment you run away fear begins!

Exactly what Carl Jung tells us, when he quips, 

Who looks outside dreams! Who looks inside awakens!

Again, something akin to what Sartre would tell us in his Being and Nothingness, 

I carry the weight of the world by myself alone without help, engaged in a world for which I bear the whole responsibility without being able, whatever I do, to tear myself away from this responsibility for an instant.

And most of the time, we are not able to come out of the snares, the shackles and the fetters that we have created for ourselves!

Yes! Indeed all our pits and miry clays are of our own sweet volition and choosing!

The power to press the exit button on any particular ‘chain’ or ‘shackle’ lies entirely in our control! This would take us to Blake’s wonderful expostulations in his ‘London’ –

In every cry of every man,

In every infant’s cry of fear,

In every voice, in every ban,

The mind-forged manacles I hear!

Yes! Indeed, these ‘mind-forged’ manacles or fetters, are of our own sane choosing!

Means to say that all suffering happens because of the button that we choose to press!

For example, when I wish to join a particular group/s on social media, I still have it on me, the choice and the power to decide to press the ‘Join’ or ‘Exit’ button that’s at my command! Ain’t I? But but but... I would rather be in company and feel needed, than be alone and feel insecure, feels this pavapetta poor me!

That’s again because these groups, these communities seek to ‘condition’ our perspectives and outlook for us full-time - 24 x 7, with their shares and videos, their indoctrinations and ruminations, curtailing our own ‘freedom of the mind’ in the process. Every minute our mind is congested and cluttered by these unending stream of information flow or crap flow, that hinders our own creative imagination! 

Hence Jidduji says,

The individual is the little conditioned, miserable, frustrated entity, satisfied with his little gods and his little traditions!

Learning liberates us! Knowledge sets us free!

Conferences: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - Part II

This is the second [and final] post in the series on ‘Conferences: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly!’

Well, right from the Middle ages up until the eighteenth century or even later, the term ‘literature’ was widely regarded as the sole, unique intellectual property of private individuals!

Hence a ‘man of letters’ or a ‘man of books’ or a ‘man of many languages’ was usually regarded with such great adoration and admiration by all and sundry!

Even the word ‘spell’ has this connotation to itself and the reasons are not far to seek! 

Anyone who knew how to ‘spell’ and read was considered having magical properties within them, and so the connotation, I guess!

Therefore the ‘literate’ individual was such a rarity to be found in those days! Again, this was chiefly because the ‘power’ to read, and the ‘power’ to access ‘literature’ was a privilege of the elite classes of society alone!

The renowned English philosopher Francis Bacon once famously remarked, ‘Knowledge is power’.

How true this statement proves!

In his astoundingly moving 1845 memoir, titled Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the author Frederick Douglass, who is a famed orator and former slave, narrates his ardent desire and great ambition to become a free man! 

But then again, in order to become free, he first needs to come out of slavery, and then he needs to equip himself with a sound education!

At one particular instance, when his mistress, Mrs. Auld, tries to teach him how to read, Mr. Auld blatantly prevents her from doing so!

Says Mr Auld, ‘Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world. Now if you teach that nigger how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave!’

Mr. Auld knew for certain that knowledge sets a person free! 

Learning liberates a person and makes them free human beings! 

Douglass, incidentally, gets to overhear this dialogue, between Mr & Mrs Auld, and realizes for himself, that knowledge and learning are the sure ways to freedom from his present slavish life! 

And with education, he is able to come out of the miry clay of slavery that has been bogging him down thus far! 

Knowledge indeed sets us free! 

It could also connote to mean that, knowledge is freedom! 

And this could possibly happen only when knowledge is free! 

And more so, when conferences and seminars give platforms for the sharing of knowledge free of cost, or at the minimum workable costs! Ain’t it?

Yet another reference for this our post here, would be from Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451! [Yup! We’ve already discussed vistas on this dystopian read on our past post HERE!]

In this dystopian world of a future America infested with thought control, carrying, possessing or reading books has been declared an offence! Firemen like Guy Montag are given the task of confiscating books by the dozens, and burn them down!

Interestingly, Guy Montag has been secretly collecting books by the dozens all along, as he couldn’t resist the charm and the lure, the tempt and the tract of the delectable book on him! Reason: he marvels at the knowledge that books carry on them!

With the help of his new neighbour, Clarisse McClellan, 'a teenager known for her free-thinking ideals and liberating spirit', Guy Montag learns a lot about what life really is! Clarisse then, is a unique kid on the block, as she does not believe in rote learning, where students are taught to ‘consume’ whatever is given to them by their teachers! To Clarisse the process of learning begins when one starts asking questions! A whole lot of them! 

Same is the case with Guy Montag too! His learning begins the moment he starts questioning all accepted ideas and beliefs into which he has been indoctrinated!

So much value there is, in the power of asking a question!

So why wait? Let’s begin the process of learning by asking questions, and also by setting knowledge free!

But why pray, should knowledge be free?

Because, as the good ol’ adage from Thoreau goes, ‘All good things are wild and free!’

So yes! Let’s set knowledge free! Let’s make our thoughts liberated! And let’s together journey forward and drink bountifully of the Tagorean ‘clear stream of reason’ to our heart’s content and thereby enter the ‘heaven of freedom’ that he had envisioned for our nation!

The first able and noble step in this direction is to take a resolve to shun with all our might, all ‘elite’ events that come dressed up in the guise of conferences [wolves in sheep’s clothing] conferences that drool and dribble 24 x 7, thinking and dreaming all the time, about our kutty little wallets (and our pavapetta debit cards sitting pretty within them,) to ‘shoot’ at sight whatever moolah that comes their way! ;-)

Yes! Let’s together set knowledge free! Together let’s make the world a better place! By providing free platforms for debates, discussions and interactions, as much as we possibly can!

images: amazondotcom

The farce of ‘in absentia’ certificates!

Conferences | The Good, the Bad and the Ugly!

Say ‘No’ to In-Absentia Certificates!

Boycott Conferences that Target your Wallet!!

Well, when organizers of seminars/ conferences share with us their colossal burden on paper presenters bunking their presentations and indulging in obtaining for themselves in absentia certificates, me thought it is time to step into the breach and spell out this despicable act of having on them such cheap, manipulated in absentia certificates!

In the interests of good research, me thought of sharing with y’all a few thoughts here below, on this kutty little post!

First of all, remember that a paper that you present at a conference is a rare-o-rare, one-of-its-kind opportunity knocking at your door, offering you exclusively on a platter, a wonderful chance of a lifetime, to prove your mettle at presenting your vibrant thoughts on your ‘eureka moment’ or your ‘something new’ moment that you’ve painstakingly researched and got for yourself, over a prolonged, patient period of time!

Secondly, it would do well to bear in mind that, presenting a paper gives you a chance to stand before an august audience, all geared up, with boldness and with guts, with a refined air of confidence, and thereby experiencing for yourself what it really is, to stand gentle and bold, cool and calm, in front of a gathering without the shivers or the quivers!

Thirdly, presenting a paper is added chance to get your thoughts and ideas legitimized, validated and approved, with added inputs, suggestions, questions, critiques and clarifications coming your way from unexpected good Samaritans in all directions!

So yesss! if you have received any in absentia certificates thus far, in your academic sojourn, basic courtesy and basic etiquette demands of you that, you better burn them to ashes, at the nearest hearth, at the quickest possible time, after having torn them off into a thousand plus pieces!

It’s a huge scam and a hugeyyy sham of the highest order, to sport an in absentia certificate on you anytime in your life.

Please for heaven’s sake, burn to ashes such sham of an in absentia certificate right away!

Now moving on to the all-important clarification that awaits you on - 

Choosing a Conference to attend - 

Well, as regards participating in conferences, and choosing for yourself a good Seminar or Conference to attend/ or to present your paper, there are a few salients that you need to watch out for! 

And yesss! watch out for these salients below with a keen nuanced and critical eye!

First and foremost, the speakers! Are they experts in their subjects? Have they published books, and/or presented papers, published their papers in renowned journals, and proved their integrity in academia over the years?

Secondly, does the conference take the initiative to come out with a publication of the papers presented, and dispatch the book/journal to you in a reasonable time-frame?

Thirdly, is the Department a full-fledged Literature department that has a BA and an MA programme in English Literature?

Fourthly, are the chairpersons capable enough to sit on their chairs and devote considerable time to focus on the paper presenter without any distractions? Or do they act the chairperson for namesake, checking their latest whatsapp messages while the presenters are making a presentation of their painstaking, original research?

Is the chairperson capable of asking at least five solid questions to every paper presenter who comes forward to present a paper?

Does the chairperson encourage questions from the audience also?

Finally, is the conference priced to a minimum?

On this be convinced please! Always check out on the pricing of the ‘conference fee’!!!

If the conference fee runs to thousands, please for heaven’s sake it’s better you stay back at home, and take a chartered trip to the Anna Centenary Library or any other good library, and do some real good reading and add some more inputs to your research, waiting in the meanwhile for genuine researcher-friendly conferences to come up!

As Tagore beautifully says in his Gitanjali,

‘Where the mind is without fear, And the head is held high, Where knowledge is free…!’

Indeed, if knowledge should be accessed by everyone, it should not be priced at a whopping premium on sky high mode! Rather, it should be offered at the minimum workable costs possible, Ain’t it?

In this regard, Jidduji, elucidating on the topic of ‘Right kind of Education’,  adds to say that, the true, noble teachers, ‘they long for an opportunity of service as a hungry man longs for food, and they are always watching for it. Their hearts are so full of the divine Love that it must be always overflowing in love for those around them. Only such are fit to be teachers - those to whom teaching is not only a holy and imperative duty, but also the greatest of pleasures!’

People like my librarian Dr. Jesudoss Manalan come under those rare few noble hearts!

Just imagine a situation where knowledge is priced at a huge premium! 

Can the lay researcher ever get the chance or the opportunity or the bhagyam to access this elitist knowledge? Nayver!

Do they long for an opportunity of service as a hungry man longs for food as Jidduji says, or do they long for an opportunity to make a fast buck on unsuspecting research scholars!???

Our munnorgal (our ancestors) made sure that knowledge was accessible by all and sundry! Chiefly by the lay! 

And that’s one reason we are here, as teachers and organizers of International Seminars/Conferences! 

Let’s not forget to remember our low estate too!

If Conferences price their events at such an exorbitant price, at an unreachable Mt. Everesty skyhigh cost, they literally convey the news to you that their event is not for real, genuine, original research or for the noblest kind of peer interactions!

On the other hand, they are just dubious means and methods to fill up their own coffers to buy for themselves additional bungalows or limousines every other year!

Of such conferences beware! Stay away! Stay far far awayyy!

You better wait your turn for another lovely ‘knowledge is free’ confy to come your way!

And it will!

The DRBCCC Hindu College, Chennai has set a wonderful trend in this regard! They are hosting a conference on 05 October 2019.

And pray guess the conference fee?

A decent Rs. 100/- for every presenter, which is inclusive of a lovely folder, a pen, a notepad, wonderful working lunch and a cuppa coffee!

I could visualize the noble Nobel Laureate Tagore himself blessing the conference with his rich showers of blessings!

May your tribe richly increase, dear Hindu College! May knowledge always be free! Forever be free!

May your love for research, may your love for real, serious, vibrant, thought-provoking interactions set the tone and the trend for all the greedy goblins to emulate by the dozens!

Hats off to you Hindu College, Chennai! Giving y'all the invite! If possible participate and be blessed! 

Way to go!

To sum it all up, a passionate researcher will never ever sell themselves to petty, cheap and nasty in absentia certificates! Neither will they step into the high-fee confy zones ever!

If you want to know what it is to be passionate about doing research, get a crash course on the basics of being passionate about research from Dr. V. K. Vasudevan! You can access him at our blog post HERE. His passion for research literally brought tears to our eyes! And almost all of us seated in the little hall, gave a standing ovation to this gentleman! He should be 80 years now!

Dr. Vasudevan is a retired RBI officer, who is so so so passionate about literature. Hence, after he retired as an officer with the Reserve Bank of India, he started on his research when he was well over 65 years, and after four illustrious years of painstaking research, at the tender young age of 69, he presented his spell-binding, electrifying defence of a viva voce, to an august gathering of attentive and enthralled minds which had a host of his grandkids lined up in the audience too, here at MCC!

After reading more on Dr. V. K. Vasudevan at this post HERE, chances are that, you will make a huge bonfire for sure of all your crappy, sloppy, in absentia certificates, at the nearest available hearth and burn instead, with passion and zeal for doing real, rigorous research in all its splendor and charm!

Best wishes to you!