Ek song ko suna...

 Explicating figures of speech to students who love to hate poetry is always an experience that you sometimes feel you would not like to assign to your worst enemy. The youth(fool) language today is as bald as the bed of a river in the scorching summer months. The social media, often their place to be and never not to be, is excellent, if at all, at banality. The Wapp University has many departments for sure. Even the world wide gurudom there refuses to touch poetry with a barge pole! What to expect then  of the dedicated disciples?

Yet simile can somehow be simplified. Robert Burns'"My love is like a red, red rose", the eternally best example, is indeed a gem of a poem. You can not only extend it to  add examples of the 'metaphor' easily, you can moreover let it bloom into a symbol. Whether or not the days and the week dedicated to 'love mania' are in the full bloom, they instantly get the colour (yellow, pink, red) symbolism.

Images are tough to trace indeed. Perception, the human activity involved, is a bother to begin with.  Explaining the five senses can drive you senseless. My panacea to overcome this dis-ease is the song "ek ladki ko dekha". It is a brilliant series of lovely images. Let me look at an example or two, and leave you to explore the rest. " sandal ki raat", for instance, captures the  beloved's dusky beauty, her uniqueness, her fragrant and rare presence, while "mandir me ho ek jalata diya" captures her illuminated persona, her soft, pure gentleness. As the first example appeals to the eyes and nose, you can thus readily and easily explain the visual and the olfactory images. The second example I have referred to explains the spatial and the kinetic imagery as well. And the explication can go on, without any boredom setting in. In fact, often, they join in the process, too. Whosoever said, Bollywood buries brains of its addicts? At times, Bollywood blooms the best!

Pratima@Aai-Papa's generation, a little wary of R.D's rhythm/felt, in this song, music he could fathom!

They taught me!

 In the Times of India, there was this news item about blind students studying German. That reminded me of the batch of visually impaired students who studied Spanish with me at the BMCC  Language Lab. It was indeed a unique experience in multiple ways. Indeed, they, too, taught me many aspects of the learning, and, living, too, process.

First and foremost, their attentiveness was fabulous. Spanish apps were not available then. My voice was their only means to Spanish wor(l)ds. They literally used to hang on to my words. Their attention used to be so intense that they literally used to remember every word. One of them, Raju, used to quote page number, line number,too! It humbled me to no end, made me still more responsible as a teacher.

What I appreciated the most about them was their joyousness. They used to participate in every college activity most enthusiastically. I still remember the way they had all dressed up for the Traditional Day. They had come to the Language Lab  specially to show me their unique attires, and their happiness, when I praised them, was sky high. 

They were hyper independent. Together, they would navigate the toughest road. If I praised them for that, they would narrate their encounters of the scariest variety with a laugh. Laughter was their USP. They had affairs, heartbreaks, silly and not so innocent gossip, too. Typical teenagers!

They taught me to be still more sensitive. Let me give you an example. I was teaching the passport, its structure/format/details. There was this entry "color de ojos"/colour of eyes. The batch was an inclusive one. The other students came up with prompt answers, black to blue! Then one of those visually impaired girls suddenly said, " Do eyes have to have colours? There is only dark black in front of us!" That goosebumps experience taught me to be still more sensitive and subtle in my choice of language assignments. Similarly, they told me of the horrible questions they were often asked by the so-called-normal people. I loved the way they used to fight for their rights. 

That batch taught me how to be grateful for so many of the positivities of the 'nomal' life granted to us gratis. Most of all, what I learnt in depth was  how never ever to "other", the backbone of literary theory even today! No wonder, I continue to love the "blind" feel!

Pratima@eyesight is not vision!

Auto-correct?

 The blog today deals with a curious phenomenon my blogs often face. Well, every blog entry I publish, I check it a lot while writing it itself. Later, I cross-check it twice to avoid any error of grammar, usage, or the likes. Yet often when I re-read it later, some mistakes I never made often creep in!

Creepy indeed. It is clear some silly soul(!?!) who thinks no end of himself/herself is up to this arrogant stupidity. With technology, such interference is getting easier by the second. How mean and stupid though! Why correct someone else's stuff when your own language is nonexistent! Such creeps make me laugh, and, no, I do not get irritated. Not in the least!

Well, as I am personally not in love with myself, I write the blog, and forget it. Now I shall doubly cross-check it the next day, too. In a way, this meddlesome busybody thus makes me and my writing better because now I would read my blogs again and again which out of humility, out of the decision to never stand on one's laurels, big or small, I always avoided so far. The trouble monger is thus going to help me to be my own trouble shooter. 

I would thus re-visit my blogs repeatedly which would be good for me and my blogs. Thank you, anonymous meddlesome fool for making me wiser!

Pratima@let your worst enemy be your neighbour, says Tuka, coz thus you get a chance to work on your faults and blemishes!

Animal Cruelty

 On a women's group was shared this most moving video. It was about animals. It had truly touching visuals, of a gorilla trapped, going mad in a cage, a calf mooing most pitifully when seperated from its mother, for instance. Nobody likes a pig. The video, however, of a fully grown pig shivering with fear just outside the abattoir in indeed tear jerking.

 The entire video makes you feel happy that you are a pure veg. Once by a roadside selling poultry, I saw the ultimate cruelty meted out to the poor fowl, and it continues to give me nightmarish feelings even some ten years later.

Yet I feel that to think  a person is  very kind, generous  and gentle if/because he/sh loves animals is wrong, too. There are animal lovers who are very harsh and exploitative with human beings! Complex are the ways of men and women.  Yet no harm praying for animals either!

Pratima@Cruelty to animals is indeed bad/hypocrisy beneath it is truly sad!

Epistles felicitous

 Exactly eight months ago, Aai left us forever. Thereafter, there has not been a moment I have not remembered her. It is no different for Papa. His sad demise was in 1999. Yet every month on 21, I keep a fast in his memory. No, I am not talking about myself. For sure, not!

The issue I am trying to 're-solve' within myself is who exactly are these mnemonic epistles addressed to? Would there be somewhere in this infinite universe some place, some time as an entity where they would be, at least as an atomic existence,  wherein these intense prayers for them, memories from the bottom of my soul and celebrating all that was best in them, would reach? A part of me says, yes, indeed!

In a way, it is like sending out messages, letters in this vast internet wo(r)ld. Some contact somewhere it makes that I am absolutely unaware of, and yet these words, these epistles of mine would mean something for/to that unknown reader in his her own way. When I think of the entire semiotics of the process, of the complex communication process involved, it makes me feel full of wonder.

There is yet a part of me, the doubting Thomas , the eternal to mean or does it Hamlet within me, that seems to ask me if this is a subtle self-indulgence. True, after the demise of Aai-Papa, within the thirteen days, and beyond, I HAVE experienced their presence, and, no, it was NOT a delusion born out of grief, despair and a sense of eternal loss. I am, moreover, of the opinion that in this infinite existence, there are zillions of unexplored sites/sights not yet explored/fathomed. Hence I never pooh-pooh any feel just because my paradigms do not explicate them. Well, in brief, here is hoping that my heart felt epistles to them both, saying that they continue to be deeply loved, reach them, where ever they are, bring them a little more contentment, a forever feel of happy peace!

Pratima@months may pass years by-n-by/to keep your serene memories alive let me forever try!

Efforts is all!

 I was to teach techniques for interviews in English this afternoon to graduating Law students from a rural college in Chattisgarh. I wanted them to realise that getting  a job is not a finished product. Rather it is a process fraught with lots of efforts.

To clarify my point, I gave them an example. I said that any fruit, when ripe, just falls down, and, if you are lucky, right in to your extended palms. Human achievements are not that easy, not so effortless. We are wired to work hard from the moment of our birth, from the days of our forefathers staying in caves. We are hence bound to a sincere effort, whatever comes, whichever may be the field.

Indeed, spiritual to social, all domains require hard work, sincere efforts. I believe, moreover, that efforts must be smart,too. In the world today, for example, the basic knowledge of computers is indeed necessary. Using  computers, moreover, would bring lots of actual rewards, too,  and, oh, that indeed is my point. Efforts is indeed all!

Pratima@efforts en-light-en  indeed!

Are they or are not they?

 To my blog yesterday, there was a rather angry response. This bitter response was by a senior professor, herself a parent. The argument of the lady was that the Young these days are responsible, too, for the "uncertain future".

What was the thrust of her complaint? Her basic argument was that the children from the  Upper Middle class household are super lazy, arrogant, self centred. Forget thinking of the rest of the world, they do not even bother about the immediate family. Even if you spoon feed them with lots of knowledge, they refuse to study. They are stupid, but aggressive and over confident. They think that the Google Guru has all the answers. And, blah, blah, blah!

My response? It is multi-layered. First, I would like to put on record the fact that there are multiple exceptions to the rule Ma'am was referring to. Beyond my immediate family, I have my past as well as present students who are highly responsible, sensible, sensitive young people who care abundantly and  genuinely for others, and for values. Nor are they hypocrites. There is a forthright frankness about them. They respond to honest sincerity.

My second point is that who makes them thus, the way Ma'am was referring to, or who is responsible for the careless heartlessness of the young? I would say, the adults. Students who see teachers with a low fund of knowledge, absolute lack of sincerity, without much responsibility or empathy, why would they respect such elders? 

In the family fold, too, if they grow up watching eternally bickering parents, tearing each other apart right in front of the young one(s), listen-in-g to a mother who dishonours, insults, belittles, plots against the in-laws (whom the child(ren) may adore) for no rhyme nor reason, observing elders who gossip and/or watch meaningless serials and t.v. programmes, who have no themes/topics for discussion beyond films, fashion, food, in such a bleak scenario, who is to be blamed?

They live, moreover, in a hugely inter-netted world. A constant deluge of information about everything from everywhere is drowning them. They are hence not naïve. The innocence of their vision is also taken away from them while they watch the inane serials along with the elders or by the comics they are (made) addicted to. 

They are, moreover, 'given'(!??!) Freedom, but are they introduced to discipline and the sense of responsibility that comes along with it? Indulging a child, I believe, is constantly communicating with him/her, talking/listening to him/her, not merely splurging money in an orgy, which would merely increase the consumer base of all sorts of TNC's!

Finally, given the limitations of space in a blog, and the attention span of a typical reader, may I conclude that ideal children require the i-deal treatment. No wonder, even in mythology, there was only one Arjuna amongst so many siblings and cousins! Old problem, in brief, in search of new remedies, right? Hence the title of the blog today!

Pratima@our children are our reflections, not  to forget the refractions!