Whither(ed) comedy!?!

 What is up with the comic scene in India? First it was Himanshu Jangra whose awful remarks are unbelievable. That entire video is not merely in extreme bad taste. It, moreover, normalises misogyny under the garb of fun and humour. That "man" (!?!) provides lurid details which reek of every vice against which women have for ages struggled! 

He speaks 'frankly' (Lord save us from such honesty!) of the ugliest details about a living 'body'!!! Much worse is Dr. Sejal Pawar talking of cadavers! Her ridiculousness violates very many ethical principles of medicine as a profession! Much worse, it could have an impact on organ and cadaver donation. 

How could people, the audience in Pranit More's show, laugh at such sensitive issues? Pranit More himself is funny! The contest he won, too, vitiates the mindscape in very many vicious ways. No wonder, such crass crudities pass as jokes in his "laughter" show! 

Stand-up comedians must maintain certain standards of decency!  Do you remember the podcaster and YouTuber Ranveer Alahbadia, widely known by his channel name 'Beer biceps'?  Remember his "would you rather" joke he made on the YouTube comedy roast show 'India's Got Latent' (hosted by comedian Samay Raina)?

What are these creeps up to? Upfront honesty does not mean sashaying the most insensitive ridicule most shamelessly! And this is Gen Z! Unfortunately, all the youngsters, given the media glamour, think that this is the "done" thing which is the saddest impact!

Remember Ravi Shastri vrooming in a racing car, and providing a rather sick n silly reaction? The very fact that such a non-issue goes hugely viral is itself a big joke! People indeed need any number of repeat courses in good laughter! Whither humour indeed? Better that such humour is fastest withered!!!

Pratima@ As if "class " wars of the Bihar variety and the "leak masters'' of Maharashtra are not enough, there is some Abhinaw Sir who has raked up a question about actresses' heights in a Kerala staff selection commission exam in 2014! His video is now proliferating on wapp groups as if the SSC board exam is responsible for such a question, and now! 

Honestly, how ludicrous can propaganda get! We should thank our stars that some caste war has not yet erupted, based on the 'i'dentities of all the involved, though political warfare is very much on, and not so subtly!

Quote of the day:                                                           "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe,” asserted Albert Einstein. Sir, yes, Sir! 

Word of the day: crudity                                              Crudity means an impolite matter in equally tasteless manner that is vulgar and lacks tact or refinement.

Soupçon MCQ Series 26

 1) Who amongst the following are not Romantic poets?

1) Charlotte Smith  2) Charles Swinburne 3) Goethe 4) William Morris 5) Baudelaire

The options are: a) 1, 2 and 5 b) 1 and 4 c) 1, 3 and 5 d) 2, 4 and 5

The correct option is (d).                                         Swinburne and Morris are Pre-Raphaelite poets, while Baudelaire belongs to the 'symboliste', 'fin de siècle " movement. 

2) Currer Bell did not write 1) Shirley 2)Villette 3)The  Professor 4)Agnes Grey 5) Felix Holt

The options are: a) 1, 4 and 5 b) 2, 4 and 5 c) 1, 2 and 5 d) 4 and 5

The correct option is (d).                                            Currer Bell is Charlotte Bronte's pen name.  She wrote the first three novels listed here. "Agnes Grey" is written by her sister, Anne Bronte. "Felix Holt" is authored by George Eliot. 

Pratima Agnihotri                                                   Pune 

What n how (not) to study? That is the question!

 'What n how not to study' is what the tuition 'class' scandal, which is the real reason behind the 'Neet question paper' leak, has shown the academic fraternity. It was not merely the lust for wealth of individual teachers that led to the 'leak' of precise answers for the exact questions. It was also the competition for fetching future more students to each branch of every 'class'. 

Given the much deserved exposing of such mal-practices, you must have noticed that, this year, there seem to be fewer ads of the "all toppers from our branch" variety. Of course, the so-called toppers, it seems, used to be paid for such "appearances", and hence were found on most all bill boards! 

Honestly, involved in the scandal are all, parents, students, the very society, and not merely the 'leak masters', who must indeed be so named, given their advanced years, and total lack of integrity and honesty, despite the age!

In such a sad scenario, what to study, especially given the AI corrosion of most all white collar jobs? That is the question! Well, if the AI bubble does not burst, and if robotics progresses at the speed at which it is advancing in China, even blue collar jobs would very soon get guzzled. 

Given such a context, in my opinion, the Humanities would become important. Literature can show a mirror to people. Philosophy may advise them. Psychology  may help them understand themselves, for instance. 

That means, in a balanced engineering  curriculum, for instance, there should be a judicious mix of the Arts Discipline, may be, with a "paper" on Business Management and Taxation Laws, for instance. Of course, this is a truly sketchy suggestion. 

Such mix-n-match education would "result" in the development of decent human beings who could be good citizens guided by critical thinking, an urgent need, given the current scenario, right? 

Of course, detailed analysis of the contours of disciplines is very much necessary. Yet, at the very outset, it is necessary to state that the arcane quality of disciplines would have to be negotiated. Literary Criticism, for example, must neither precede a text nor should be excessively terminology infested. Given the turn of events, the world sure needs to re-think education, and fast!

Pratima@ The best way to control the AI invasion of the learning context and its creativity is to design assignments, tests, exam question papers which no ChatGPT can conveniently and/or comfortably answer!  

Quote of the day:                                                          "Children(/students) are always throwing out sparks of knowledge, curiosity and inquiry, and adults(/teachers) must be ready to catch those." So opines Annalisa Rabitti. The bracketed options are mine. 

Word of the day: Home schooling                               Home schooling is the practice of educating school-aged children at home or outside the traditional classroom setting, typically directed by parents or tutors. It offers a highly personalized curriculum that allows students to learn at their own pace, utilizing resources ranging from structured online academies to flexible, real-world experiences.

Soupçon MCQ Series 25

 Today onwards, let us make this test item more complicated. 

1) Which of the following dates are not important in the colonial history of India?

a) 1757 b) 1857 c)1773 d) 1492 e) 1889

The choices are :A) 1757 and 1773 B) 1492 and 1889 C) 1492 and 1773 D) 1757 and 1889

The correct option is ( B).

1757: Battle of Plassey.                                               1857: The Indian War of Independence           1773:The Regulating Act which extended the British Monarchical powers on to India as a colony.                                                                   1492: Columbus' "discovery"                               1889: Otto van Bismarck convenes a meet of European powers which results in the scramble for and conquest of Africa

2) Who amongst the following authors do not belong to the "Lost Generation"?

1) James Joyce 2) Ernest Hemingway 3) F. Scott Fitzgerald 4) John Dos Passos  5) Edwin Muir

The options are: a) 1 and 5 b) 4 and 5 c) 3 and 5 d) 2 and 3

The correct option is (a), 1 and 5, that is Joyce and Muir.                                                                    The term "lost generation" describes a famous group of American expatriate writers who lived in Paris in the 1920s, disillusioned by the war and traditional societal values back home. 

Pratima Agnihotri                                                       Pune 

Soupçon MCQ Series 24

 1) Which of the following is not a text written by John Fowles? a) The Aristos b) The Collector c) A Clock Work Orange d) The French Lieutenant's Woman. 

The right choice is (c), a novel about violent youth culture written by Anthony Burgess. 

2) Which of the following is not a bildungsroman? a) J.D.Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye" b) James Joyce's "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" c) Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations" d) Frantz Kafka's "The Castle". 

The right choice is (d), the novel by Kafka, a critique of the all-pervading authority. 

3) T. S. Eliot did not write one of these plays. Which one? a) The Elder Statesman b) The Festivities c) The Cocktail Party d) The Family Reunion. 

The correct option is (b), a one act farce by Anton Chekov, the great Russian dramatist. 

Pratima Agnihotri                                                           Pune

A boon?

 Is the technological growth a curse or a boon? Often, baboons are whom most people emulate, what with the tecnological toys they have to tinker with! 'No boon' is then how technology appears! 

Let me give you an example or two. Whichever mode of privacy that you may use, useless it is if someone has strong hacker tools which such creeps certainly do have! For such weirdos, even a distance of fifteen feet is enough to gain access, or rather control, to watch you through the phone.

Earlier I used to feel, who would have so much spare time? No longer am i so sure. There are creeps enough, with extremely ill-gotten truck loads of money to squander.

 Such ghouls pay fools of all ages to shriek non-sense of all sorts in the vicinity. There would always be loafers who have nothing to do the whole day, and would require easy money to satiate their evil ugly desires! 

Creeps, if you do not have high-funda support, are best ignored! Instead, there IS a very positive mode to look at such tampering. Reading my messages might make them absolutely ethical, actually better users of English and aware of many impotant issues which would, otherwise tremble to enter that vacuity, that barrenness, that zero which is the inside of that cavity known as their brains! In brief, whichever way it is used, technology IS a boon!

Pratima@ No use fighting with people on whom irony is lost. Why get in to screeching matches, especially because such gangs' throats have the strength their brains lack!

Quote of the day:                                                           "Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it," says Charles R. Swindoll.

Word of the day: positivity                                            Positivity is the practice of maintaining an optimistic, constructive attitude and focusing on the good in any given situation. It is not merely the absence of negative emotions, but it is also an actionable mindset that emphasizes growth, gratitude, and forward momentum.

Soupçon MCQ Series 23

 This week, the MCQ type which we shall explore would be the "by negation" type? 

1) Which amongst the following critical texts does not  even loosely belong to the "New Criticism" theory? a) The Well Wrought Urn b) Seven Types of Ambiguity c) Practical Criticism d)Studies in European Realism. 

The right option is (d) because Lukacs' is a Marxist analysis, while Cleanth Brooks', William Empson's and I. A. Richards' books are the fulcrum of New Criticism.

2) New Historicism will not accept one of the following statements. Which one is it?  a) Literature occupies a trans-historical aesthetic realm, independent of economic, social, political contexts, and hence is subject to timeless criteria of artistic principles. b) The Humanist concept of "essential" human nature as reflected by an author and his characters is a bourgeois ideological illusion. c) A literary text is embedded in its context as an interactive component within a network of  institutions, beliefs and cultural power relations. d) Readers, too, are 'subjects' conditioned by their ideological contexts. 

The correct choice is (a) as it negates the basic premises of New Historicism, reflected largely in the other three options. 

3) Which of the following is not a "revenge tragedy" ? a) The Spanish Tragedy b) Hamlet c) Othello d) The Duchess of Malfi. 

The correct option is (c). Iago's wickedness is "motiveless malignancy." The play, moreover, has none of the standard components of the genre. 

Pratima Agnihotri                                                       Pune