Ancient vs Modern: Isn't it stupid to think who is better?

Instructions by Teacher
Sem 1:
Reference: Dryden's Essay.
Point of Debate: Ancient vs Modern.

  Read attached writeup from Chitralekha magazine.
Isn't it true that such writings which narrowly focuses on "Who is better?" conditions our mind to think of "comparison"  always in terms of 'good and bad?. Isn't it true that such conditioning narrows our thinking? We are unable to restore connection between the past and the present when we see things as antithesis to each other.  We always think that one should be better than the Other. The idea of mutual coexistence ceases to exist in our mind and thus we fail to coexist with difference.

        The writer would have read Dryden's Essay to understand an important point to keep in mind while we "compare".
"Discussion of Ancient and Modern shud not be for who is better, it shud be more filename tally about how "history" itself functioned and shud be read, thus it shud be about the relationship between past ans present, humanity and nature, and human understanding and knowledge."

   What is your opinion about this two viewpoint?
It would be good if you support your argument with personal or general real life experiences.
Sem 3 students should participate along with sem 1 in this online discussion.

My Answer:

      The concept of comparing present and past can help us to get new ideas but it should not be compared to get the results that which one is best. Both are equally important on their place because both are necessary to make future.

    The connection between present and past always helps the reader to understand the work and the situations around.

Thank you.

Virginia Woolf: My top 3 quotes.

Instructions by Teacher

All students:. Here is an  interesting writeup with top 10 quotes from Virginia Woolf.

   Your task is to identify top 3 from these ten quotes and organise in the sequence of ur likeness. Do not miss to give the reason/s for your likeness.

Source:http://www.bustle.com/articles/57656-10-virginia-woolf-quotes-that-show-us-why-shes-still-a-literary-boss?utm_source=FBOnsite

      1. “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.”
Hell yes. Since Woolf published her famous essay in 1929, “A Room of One’s Own” has become a feminist battlecry. Appropriated from its intended audience of female artists, the simple demand for independence and privacy now feels like the most basic — though sometimes most difficult to achieve — right of women everywhere.


   2. “So long as you write what you wish to write, that is all that matters; and whether it matters for ages or only for hours, nobody can say.”
   
   Virginia Woolf wrote whatever subject she felt like writing about in whatever style she felt like writing in. Diaries, stream of consciousness, “purple” prose — Woolf refused to be pigeonholed. Oh, and she wouldn’t even give anybody a chance to reject her writing, by going straight to self-publishing.

  3. “The older one grows, the more one likes indecency.”
      Forget propriety and expectations. We can try to blame the Roaring ‘20s, but Woolf didn’t like to deny herself certain pleasures, whether it was a good book, a good debate, or an extramarital affair with another woman.

     4. “Never pretend that the things you haven't got are not worth having.”
Virginia Woolf was not a complacent woman. She worked for the things she wanted with tireless enthusiasm, whether the pursuit was political, romantic, professional, or intellectual. Pretty cool for a woman practically bred for entitlement.

     5. “To admit authorities, however heavily furred and gowned, into our libraries and let them tell us how to read, what to read, what value to place upon what we read, is to destroy the spirit of freedom which is the breath of those sanctuaries.”

    Woolf was a member of the intellectual class, but she wasn’t a snob. She wrote a lot about books and reading, and was adamant that access, not judgment, was what readers deserved. It would have been fun to know what she thought of Fifty Shades of Grey.
  
   6. “They can because they think they can.”
Virginia Woolf didn’t like limitations, and gave us robust, thinking female protagonists, from party-throwing Clarissa Dalloway to portrait-painting Lily Briscoe. But of course, the person who broke through the most barriers, rose to the most challenges, was Woolf herself.



     7. “Once she knows how to read there's only one thing you can teach her to believe in and that is herself.” 
     Woolf believed women should possess intelligence and independence and pursued both in her life and her writing. Many of her protagonists struggle with the desire to achieve one or both of these things.



     8. “The history of men’s opposition to women’s emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of emancipation itself.”
Virginia Woolf was not naïve enough to believe that just because women got the vote, that they had achieved equality. The more things change…

     9. "It is fatal to be a man or woman pure and simple: one must be a woman manly, or a man womanly."
  Woolf often said that she was bored by men, and a belief in gender fluidity and sexual freedom paired with her lackluster confidence in men’s authority was evident in much of her writing. Don’t let the cardigans fool you.

   10. “If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people.”

    In a time when silence, exile, denial, and shame were the prevailing attitudes towards sufferers of sexual abuse and mental illness, Woolf remained open and honest about her struggles. In the end, the knowledge that she could not escape her illness nor survive it any longer drove her to suicide at age 59, but she never once pretended that it wasn’t happening to her.


My Answer:

  Three quotes of Virginia Woolf  which I most like as under,

1) Never pretend that the things you haven't got are not worth having,
    In our life we are not able to get everything but it not mean that those things are worthless. We haven't  those things so we have to accept it, but don't think that it is worthless.

2) They can because they think they can,
     Our will power and our confidanc are very important to get anything. We can do everything but if we have these two things then and then we are able to get everything. So in life to be confidant, never lose your confidanc in any conditions.

3) If you do not tell truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people,
    Sometimes we judge other people that he/she is doing wrong thing. But somewhere we are also doing that thing but we never accept. So first try to accept whatever you do and then tell about others.

4) A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction,
     We must have to give equal freedom of both man and women. So if man can write so why not woman? She has also capacity to think and write so we must have to give them.


Thank you.

Interview of Historian Irfan Habib and Caste-ing Ashoka in Bihar.

Teachers instructions:

All students,
Two articles are shared for online discussion .

1) Interview of Historian Irfan Habib 
2) Caste-ing Ashoka in Bihar.

      History is similar to memory. As in case of individual Memory of past (memory is always about past) helps in organizing present and future. Similarly,  History helps in organising present and future of National / Society.
 
   History is recalled, rewritten ans reinterpreted, time and again. All rereading or appropriation of historical figures/facts gives us understanding about the power and it's relation with History. (HISTORY IS ALWAYS WRITTEN BY THE WINNERS. The defeated are always disparaged in history).

You are invited to share your views / opinions of  the two writeups.  What do you think about the views expressed? Do you agree or disagree with the views? Why? What's your logic?

Share in reply to this email.


My Answer:
      1) Irfan Habib Historian Interview:

           Yes, I agree with the ideas of Irfan Habib. History is the chronological events, it can't speak a single word. But we are criticize it or try to destroy it because of some politics issue or sometimes to enhanced our religion,etc. History is just try to present the picture of past. And there is one other point is that ' history always written by winners so we can' t find the place of others who can't win. As we can see in Mahabharata the character of Eklavya, we can see he is marginalized in Mahabharata. Thus, I am agree with the views of Irfan Habib.

    2) In Bihar now what is the need to remember character of history like Ashoka, because of some political issues. They try to convince that Ashoka was belonged from 'kushwah'. In Ramayana also we can find that the son of Rama 'Kush' he is belonged from this caste. So they try to connect these things and from this issue they try to get vote. So these all things are connected with politics.
         
   Thus,  here in these articles I understand these things.

Thank you.

The birthday party

Respected Sir,

Here is my response for the given task:

Blog task:

            1) While viewing movie, we are not clear about the character of Lulu and it is absurd play which significantly show unclear things. Character of Lulu is like that.

           2) Yes, we can say that this movie is successful in giving us the effect of menace. Because while viewing the movie we feel it from the behaviour of characters.

          3) Yes, I feel the effect of lurking danger while viewing the movie. Because there are some characters remain unclear and we never known who is that person and what are they doing? So from those things we can understand it.

         4) Generally it is daily things but in this play it is signifying something. And pieces are hidden because to show everything is fine, nothing happened.

        5) Camera show us many things but if we observed minutely. Artists are not free in our society. They can't developed their art freely. So indirectly it is cage.

          6) Yes, these all things are reflected in the movie. We don't know some characters and why they are coming as like politics. We can also see that an artist is not free to do whatever they want. So, these things reflected in the movie.

        7) It is absurd play and while viewing movie we can understand it. We are not enjoying it, but we have to give pain to our mind to understand it. But after viewing the movie we are clear in our mind regarding the play. So it is helpful to us.

8) I am agree with second observation that It's impossible to imagine a better film of Pinter's play than this sensitive, disturbing version directed by William Friedkin”

9) If I were director or screenplay writer so I make it more unclear and using camera to make different angles. But after all it is difficult to make movie on absurd play.

  10) I choose characters like
Stanely : Akshay Kumar
lulu : Karina Kapoor etc..

Thank you.

"The Gift of the Magi"

 "The Gift of the Magi" is a short story, written by O Henry.There are three characters in the story like,

    Della
    Jim 
    madame Sofronie

   The Gift of the Magi is  Story  about married couple and how they deal with the challenge of buying secret Christmas gifts for each other.

   In this story husband and wife belongs to poor family. And on the new year both want to give new things for their loving person with poor money. Both are sacrifice their own favourite thing because of their love. So, it is beautiful story about true love. The plot of story and it's twice ending are well known and the ending is generally considered an example of comic Irony.

Thank you.

Don't frightens from new things.

           Now a days in and around us there are many new things related with technology. But point is that we don't know all things about it. And because of this problem we are afraid of it. But don't worry no one is born learned, everyone is learning through experiences. And to get experience, first we must have to use those new things. Without using it we can't even know about it. There is one story "My bank account", in this story the main character afraid of bank. When first time he entered in the bank he worried about many things that what will happen? And many people laugh on him and on that day he decides that he will never go in the bank.    
 
    But now a days for us it is compulsory to go in bank because of new rules in  Government. So, after all I want to say that don't afraid of anything because everything is first for everyone.

Thank you.

પડદો પડી ગયો..

પડદો પડી ગયો

ઈ હસી ગયો અને કોઈ

રડીગયો

કોઈ પડી ગયો અને કોઈ

ચડી ગયો

થૈ આંખ બન્ધ ઓઢ્યું કફન

એટલે થયું

નાટક હતું મઝાનું ને પડદો

પડી ગયો

      -શેખાદમ આબુવાલા

              "પડદો પડી ગયો" This poem is  written by Shekhadam Abuvala. It is a wonderful poem."ઈ હસી ગયો અને કોઈ રડીગયો કોઈ પડી ગયો અને કોઈ ચડી ગયો" It shows reality of our life. In our life someone become successful while some are not, many enjoy life while many not. Everybody has his/her different situation in their life. And those all things described by poet in four lines. This is the power of words. Last lines are "થૈ આંખ બન્ધઓઢ્યું કફન એટલે થયું નાટક હતું મઝાનું ને પડદો પડી ગયો"It is about death that when we last time close our eyes at that time the play of life is complete. If we wish to live but we can't able to stop it.

   So, it shows reality of our life and death.

"The Last Leaf"

      "The Last Leaf" is a short story by O Henry published in 1907 in his collection The Trimmed Lamp and Other Stories.There are three main characters in the story us under,

         1) Johnsy
         2)Sue
         3)Behrman

     The last leaf is a story about ill girl whose whish of life related with last leaf. There is one painter in this story who became always unsuccessful in his work. But then he draw beautiful and realistic leaf and because of that painting girl become confident and then she lives her life. But that painter can't able to save himself. He died because of thunder outside, and he made that picture.

      That is called as "master peace". So it is good for them.

Thank you.

The Fakeer of Junghira

      The Fakeer of Junghira is poem written by Henry Louis Vivian Derozio. It is a long poem. Fakeer and Nuleeni are the main characters of this poem.

  This poem is about one of the worst ritual of India and that is "SATI PRATHA". That issue described here in the story. Nuleeni run away with Fakeer because she don't want to be Sati. But our society is not able to understand them. And then they both are fall in love with each other. But here point is about bad rituals, because of that rituals human has to suffer.

   So, we must have to remove those kinds of rituals and bad things from our society.

Thank you..

The white Tiger

   White Tiger is a novel written by Arvind Adiga. There are many symbols in this novel like White Tiger, Lizard, Black fort, Delhi, Chandelier, The Rooster coop, etc. These all symbols are signifying something so let's know about it.

1) White Tiger : 
    according to Chinese Yang and Yean are energies one shows positivity while other for darker. As same in novel the character of Balram is like that. White Tiger is a rarest animal in the forest as same Balram is rare in his village.                    
 
2) Lizard : 
          It is symbolized darkness and fear. It is afraid of light and love for darkness as same Balram also doing like that.                                

3) Black fort :
            It is centerpiece of his village, it symbolized extreme poverty. And it is main issue in the novel.        
                
4) Delhi :
          It symbolized  difference between rich and poor. We can see both the situations in Delhi.                              
5) Chandelier :
             It is the symbol for light in darkness. As same Balram is like that type of character according to himself.
                   
6) The Rooster Coop : 
      Rooster feel uncomfortable when they are together. When one rooster is taken away to slaughter other roosters become happy. But rooster in the coop don't know that their turn is next one. As same,  this things happened with poor people.                  
     So, these are some symbols in the novel. And it is big satire on India.

Thak you.

હું ભાઈ ..

હું ભાઈ નવા યુગનો ચેલો છું
પવન પ્રમાણે શઢ ફેરવી
લાભ મળે ત્યાં લોટું છું— ભાઈ નવા
યુગનો..
ભવ્ય આશ્રમ નજરે પડતાં
તુરત જ ડેરા ડાલું છું
ગુરુની પાસે કંઠી બંધાવી
મોબાઈલ લઈ મહાલું છું…ભાઈ      નવા..
જેની હાકો વાગે સરકારમાં
એ નેતાને પીંછાણું છું
ગુણલા ગાઈ પ્રચાર માધ્યમે
વિમાન યાત્રાએ શોભું છું..ભાઈ
નવા..
છપ્પન ભોગના થાળ દેખીને
દંડવતે ભગવંત શરણું શોધું છું
ભજન ધૂનો ગાઈ માઈકમાં
ચોટલી બાંધી નાચું છું..ભાઈ નવા..
એડમીશન ટાણે શાળામાં જઈ
મુખ્ય શિક્ષકને વધાવું છું
ટ્રસ્ટી સાહેબના ભોળા સાળાને
લાડ કરી રીઝાવું છું..ભાઈ નવા..
મેવા માટે કરવી સેવા
એ ગુરુ મંત્ર,ઘરવાળીએ દિધો છે
પવન પ્રમાણે શઢ ફેરવી
લાભ મળે ત્યાં લોટું છું
હું ભાઈ નવા યુગનો ચેલો છું.

– રમેશ પટેલ ‘આકાશદીપ’



           This poem written by Ramesh Patel 'Hu nava yug no chelo chu'. In this poem poet try to highlights bad things from our society. It is satirical poem. People are running behind money and luxurious life. Everybody become like 'prasadiiya bhagat' "પ્રસાદીયા ભગત". One line is that "એડમીશન ટાણે શાળામાં જઈ
મુખ્ય શિક્ષકને વધાવું છું"This line satirize our education system. All are corrupting. Everybody going there where some benefits for them. Then and then they will go.

Thank you.

Life long tragedies of William shakespeare

      William Shakespeare was a great writer. He wrote four tragedies as under,
    1) King Lear.                     
    2) Hamlet.                         
    3) Othello.                         
    4) Macbeth.                  
   

                       These four tragedies of Shakespeare are very famous in the history. Now a days also we can find many write up on those tragedies. Because there are many elements in those tragedies that they are living in 21st century also. Shakespeare died but his works have long life and because of that works, now a days also he is in our mind. This is the strength of literature. We are remembering those person whether in exam paper, ppt, blog, etc. That is the success of a writer. There are many other writers also in the history but those names we have to memorize while Shakespeare not.

    Thus, some literature decline in it's time while some are life long literature as like Shakespeare's.

Thank you.

"આ બદલાતી દુનિયામાં...

 
   "આ બદલાતી દુનિયામાં 
    એવુ બનવા લાગ્યુ છે.
    માણસ ગાંડો અને ફોન
    સ્માટઁ થવા લાગ્યા છે."

   In this sentence we find satire on new techno- world. But how far is it true? We can't say that this sentence is true. Some one write this type of sentence because many people don't know that how to use phone? But if we are using it properly then phone is blessing for us. Everything has its own positive and negative sides. But it not mean that we are stopping its use. Because to stop is not final solution but try to use it properly that is the final solution.

           So develop your capacity to understand and then apply. Everything has its positive and negative sides like T.V, fen, etc. But it not mean that we stopping to use it.

Thank you..

The Purloined Letter

  "The Purloined Letter" is Story written by Adger Allen poe in 1844. In this story the main center is Letter.There many characters in the story us under,

 Auguste Dupin,
 Unnamed narrator,
 Monsieur G,
 Minister D.

               Police attempt thorough investigation but come up with nothing. Dupin discovers that letter because he think like criminal mind not like police. If we want to find out the things which are hidden by criminal so we must have to think like criminal mind.Then webecome successful.

         So this story about that letter that how the letter discovered by Dupin.


Thank you.

The Tell Tale Heart

             The Tell Tale  heart  is story written by Adger Allen poe. In this story narrator kills the old man only because of his eyes. The narrator dismembers his body and conceals the parts under floorboards of the bedroom. But when the police arrive to investigate at that time he caught by the police because of that beating of the old man's heart.  

             So, this story is also very different we can't understand that why this type of killing happened. But it connected with psycho. In the movie "Ek tha villain" also we can see that type of murderer. So there are some people who are like that.

Thank you.

"The Fall of the House of Usher"

                "The Fall of the House of Usher" story written by Adgar Allan Poe. Narrator summoned by his boyhood friend Roderick Usher. The narrator discovers that Madeline is also sick, the sister of Roderick.The men bury Madeline in a tomb within the House. They later discover, to their horror, that they have entombed her alive. But in the end Roderick dies in fear. So, this story is about murders.

   So his most of the stories are like this. We can see mentally ill persons in his stories.Thus, it is horrible story.

Thank you.

"The Black Cat

   Adgar Allan Poe  wrote very different stories as compare to other. In his many of the story we find killing by various people. In the story "The Black Cat" a drunken man kill his cat. the cat returns from the dead to haunt him then the narrator's tries to strike back at the cat but kills his wife in the process. Then he caught by cellar because of the cat.

     So killing happened in the story. We can't understand story easily. Because generally in the story we find interesting description or we enjoy it. But here in the poe's story it is not happening.

Thank you.

ઓચિંતુ કોઇ મને રસ્તે મળે ને

     ઓચિંતુ કોઇ મને રસ્તે મળે ને
     કદી ધીરેથી પૂછે કે કેમ છે ?
     આપણે તો કહીએ કે દરિયા 
     શી મોજમાં
     ને ઉપથી કુદરતની રહેમ છે.
     ફાટેલા ખીસ્સાની આડમાં 
     મૂકી છે એમ
     છલકાતી મલકાતી મોજ;
     એકલો ઊભું ને તોયે મેળામાં
      હોઉં એવું
      લાગ્યા કરે છે મને રોજ,
      તળું વસાય નહીં એવડી પટારીમાં
      આપણો ખજાનો હેમખેમ છે….
      આંખોમાં પાણી તો આવે ને જાય
      નથી ભીતર ભીનાશ થતી ઓછી;
      વધઘટનો કાંઠાઓ રાખે હિસાબ
      નથી પરવા સમંદરને હોતી,
      સૂરજ તો ઊગે ને આથમી યે જાય
      મારી ઊપર આકાશ એમનેમ છે….

           This poem is  written by Druv Bhatt. He is great poet and his most of poems are in tune. We can enjoy it while singing. In this poem he put the key points to be happy in our life. Many people are finding happiness in other things but it is not there. Rather to find it in others better to find in our self. We have to be happy in any type of situation.

    Thare are many things in the world as it is, for example sky is always there, nature is always there, etc. So it is very interesting poem.
 
Thank you.

It changed my perception on perception.

 What a wonderful post.. !

It changed my perception on perception...

A teacher teaching Maths to a six-year-old asked him, “If I give you one apple and one apple & one apple, how many apples will you have?”

With a few seconds the boy replied confidently, “Four!”

The dismayed teacher was expecting an effortless correct answer (three).

She was disappointed. “May be the child did not listen properly,” she thought.

She repeated, “pls listen carefully.

It is very simple. You will be able to do it right if you listen carefully.

If I give you one apple and one apple and one apple, how many apples will you have?”

The boy had seen the disappointment on his teacher’s face.

He calculated again on his fingers.

But within him he was also searching for the answer that will make his teacher happy.

This time hesitatingly he replied, “Four...”

The disappointment stayed on teacher’s face.

She remembered that the boy loves strawberries.

She thought maybe he doesn’t like apples and that is making him lose focus.

This time with exaggerated excitement & twinkling eyes she asked ...

“If I give you one strawberry & one strawberry & one strawberry, then how many will you have?”

Seeing the teacher happy, the young boy calculated on his fingers again.

There was no pressure on him, but a little on the teacher.

She wanted her new approach to succeed.

With a hesitating smile, the young boy replied, “Three?”

The teacher now had a victorious smile. Her approach had succeeded.

She wanted to congratulate herself.

But one last thing remained.

Once again she asked him, “Now if I give you one apple and one apple and one more apple how many will you have?”

Promptly the answer was “Four!”

The teacher was aghast.

“How.... tell me, How?” she demanded in a little stern and irritated voice.

In a voice that was low and hesitating young boy replied, “Because I already have one apple in my bag.”

Lessons to Learn: When someone gives you an answer that is different from what you are expecting, it is not necessarily they are wrong.

There may be an angle that we may not have understood at all.

We need to learn to appreciate and understand different perspectives.

Quite often, we try and impose our perspectives on others and then wonder what went wrong.

The next time someone gives you a different perspective than yours, sit down and gently ask " can you please help me understand"?......

   This is a wonderful post, it shows that we are thinking only on one direction. We can't think beyond that, as in this post children are right but according to teacher he is wrong, but in the end teacher realise that her way of thinking is wrong. So try to think from other angle, so you can understand the ideas of other person. If one is telling one thing many times so try to ask them or try to understand them. So, all have to think in different way.
 
     Don't apply always your perception on others, there may be another angle that we may not understand. Think different and try to learn from others..



Thank you

ક્ષણે ક્ષણે અમૃત

    Book review on "ક્ષણે ક્ષણે અમૃત". This book edited by Nilesh Maheta. There are various topics on wonderful ideas are represented. There are various topics like " જલ ભરી વદળી" ,"આપણી અપેક્ષા", "લાગણી ના અક્ષરો", etc. Those all are very interesting. There are various examples or experiences of different people we can see in this. So, if you are interested in those things so must read.

      There is one write up on  "આપણી અપેક્ષા". In this we can see that one person always praying to God and says that please give me your bless, speak with me, etc. When he first time says to God at that time one    speak but he never realise. These things happen many times but he never realise. And in the end he think that God is no more. Then two lines on we get his bliss through various things like birds, clouds, child, etc.  
 
   So, from this write up I want to say that People are finding God but god is everywhere... How far is it true? Why there is need of God?,etc. So these many questions remain as it is.

  Thank you.