Love that Changes

Love is what you make of it

Many people around the world have the multiple definition of love. Some do have prejudices of its nature too. There are people who feel that the word love has something negative associated with it. Not only that there are people who can hardly believe that love can have many dimensions. Love has nothing wrong in it. Love is divine. And something that is divine has an enriching things associated with it to contribute for you and me. It has a power that can transform our life and bring happiness and joy to our existence. It can make the lame walk, the blind to see and the weak to be strong. The whole problem lies with us; we are not able to use this amazing gift of God to the right direction. We are the one who use it wrongly for the wrong purpose and put the blame on this so sacred aspect of life. We cannot avoid love; Life without love is not a life. It is as if you are in the desert and you cannot find water, just imagine what will be the situation when you are so thirsty and there is no sign of an oasis. So also the love, you cannot imagine to be happy without the feeling of love within.
The world is facing numberless problem, and one of the main reason for which we are suffering is this that we have not learned to love one another. Love conquers all goes the famous sayings of the sages. Are we able to love people all the time despite of national borders and colors of people? If we are not, there we lack and the problems will continue to poke its nose to our life and existence on this earth.
I am obviously not enforcing my idea stating that when we have love, we will be able to feed our stomach with it. But one thing that I know is this when we love people, there are more co-operations in every aspect of our life and work and it becomes easy to feed ourselves. Because there will always be support of others and we can find a job and find the means to satisfy our needs. But the want of heart is the love. And the immaterial things are sometime more important than the material things. Because immaterial things inspire to go forward and fight with odds to achieve the goal of life, whether it be food or status or anything of this life. So Let us learn to love, Let us learn to live together by using the goodness of love in the right direction.
So I can finally say all that love can contribute will take its shape only when we use it on the right direction and so Love is what you make of it.

May God be with you as you strive to succeed and excel with all goodness in your heart.

By Litton

Enjoy Life

Life is a Miracle
By Litton Prosad M

Every day comes with something new, a new sun, a new feeling, a new flower that blossoms from its buds and the dew bathe grasses smiles and tells us that there is something special that we can gain from this short span of life.Oh! Everyday we keep on doing a thousand of things , busy with thousands of necessary or unnecessary , important or unimportant matter and surely experiences of sweet and bitter adds to this list, we sometime even forget to watch the beauty of the setting sun or the beauty of the sparkling stars in the far away sky, wow they have something special to provide us, something peaceful , something that can relax our soul. But in this hussle bussle of life, we can hardly find time to take a break and enjoy all the natural worders all around us.We are useless busy bee, because we never gather honey, simply we loiter around around false flowers, If we can just peep out of encircled boundary of so called scheduled life then we will find that life is a miracle.

And thus I wish as you spend your holidays just after the exams, you will get sometime to watch the beauties that the nature can provide and will heal your dried soul of life's duty. I wish that you would take off your shoes one morning and will touch the dew bathe grasses and make your feet feel little special for one day, I wish that you would take little time and will go to the roof of your home or maybe to an open yard and will watch the smiling moon and the stars and will take little fresh breathe.Your soul requires that, your heart always happy with something that is natural and peaceful. Oh Man, take a little time and enjoy this beauties of life. And then you will get the real meaning and joy of living and will be able to feel that everyday is a new day that comes with something new to offer you and to make you better.


As you spend your time with your family and friends during this winter season, May you find that everyday comes with something special to offer you and will make your life more meaningful.

The Lesson Planning, By Litton Prosad Mowalie, Pune

The Lesson Planning

Abstract:

It was an erroneous belief held for many decades that education meant only a series of lessons and that the school was a place where these lessons were given. It has been realized increasingly that a lesson is not merely a means of giving instruction or doing out of facts. It can be an occasion of learning, for thinking, for understanding- “It can provide generous scope for the self-activity of the pupil, directed, guided and stimulated by the teacher” But such lessons must be planned in advance.

A lesson plan points out what has already been done, in what direction the pupils should next be guided and the immediate work to be taken up. It is the statement of the aims to be realized as result of activities engaged in during the period, the class spreads with the teacher.

This term paper takes an effort to give valuable information about the importance of lesson planning. It focuses the on the value, significance, and necessity of lesson planning for the proper execution of lessons in a classroom. It shows how lesson planning is the best tool that can be used for the effective teaching and learning situation. It makes the teaching and learning experience an enjoyable activity.







Introduction:

A school is a formal agency of education. The classroom is a formal place where teachers and pupils meet- the former for teaching and the latter for learning. Meetings between teachers and pupils should be occasions for learning, thinking and understanding. To achieve maximum advantages, it becomes imperative that education activities be best planned and best conducted. The teacher should create learning situations and organize them in such a way that the child is motivated to know, to think and to do. Lesson planning plays a very vital role to organize the class in a best possible manner and it makes teaching learning a very enjoyable activity.

It is absolutely necessary for a beginner in the profession to draw up a detailed lesson plan and even rehearse parts of it before meeting the class. It would be advisable to carry the plan into the class and refers to it when memory or confidence may seem to betray him. The success of a work is ensured if the work is properly planned. Without planning we shall be loitering about, applying means without aiming at the achievement of ends. It is therefore necessary for the teacher in the teaching to set down detail of thought and expressions in lesson plan. In case of a language, planning certainly means selection and gradation of the language material. It is foreseeing success or failure of a work, or a lesson that we are going to teach to the class.




What is a lesson plan? Definitions and meanings:


“A lesson plan” in the words of Lester B. Sands, “ is actually a plan of action”. It, therefore, includes the working philosophy of the teacher, his knowledge of philosophy, his information about it and understanding of his pupils, his comprehensions of the objectives of education, his knowledge of the material to be taught and his ability to utilize effective methods.” A lesson-plan points out what has already been done, in what direction the pupils should next be guided and helped and what work to be taken up immediately. “ It is the teachers mental and emotional visualization of the classroom experience as he plans it to occur”. “ It is in many ways the core, the heart of effective teaching”.

A lesson-plan should tell very simply the story, the way the teacher intends, rightly or wrongly, to employ children for a given period: what he and they are going to do. This written, “ story should show both sincerity and plan- a flexible and informal plan.

The “ story” of the intended lesson should, however, not look like a story. In one sense, the teacher is playing a role- possibly the chief role in a performance (with no play-acting, of course). The plan, therefore, should look more like a programme. There should be bold headings and smaller headings indicating: the different things that are to go on at different times, who are to do those things- (the teacher or children, or both), the instruments to be used, and a certain amount of, not every word, what is to be said.

Thus lesson-plan points what has already been done, in what direction the pupils should next be guided and helped, and the immediate work to be taken up. It begins with the goals of instruction and ends with a well-conceived means of arriving at those goals.


The Value And Necessity of Lesson Planning:


Careful lesson planning is the foundation of all good teaching from the first day to the last day of student teaching. The nature of lesson-plan may change as the years go by, but planning should never stop. The lesson planning not only important in class room teaching, but also at home where the student is to learn anything or he is to do some other work. Planning smoothens the work and is able to foresee the hurdles in advance and this helps the planner to take appropriate action to find the solution of it. An experienced teacher may not need to prepare a detailed lesson plan or carry to along with him to the class. However, he too has to have a clear outline in his mind of what he is going to teach.

Lesson planning performs some specific functions as described below.

i) It forces consideration of- goals and objectives, the selection of subject matter, the selection of procedure, the planning of activities, and the preparation of tests of progress.

ii) It keeps the teacher on the track; ensure steady progress and a definite outcome of teaching and learning procedures.

iii) It is essential for effective teaching. It requires the teacher to look ahead and plan a series of such activities, and progressively modify children’s attitude, habits, information, and abilities in desirable directions.

iv) Planning prevents waste because it helps the teacher to be systematic and orderly. It saves him from haphazard teaching.

v) It serves as check on unplanned curriculum. It provides a sensible framework to help the work, directing along the lines of syllabus at a suitable rate. The hierarchy of lessons becomes well-knit, inter-connected. Continuity is assured in the educative process. Needless repetition is avoided.

vi) Lesson planning gives the teacher greater assurance and therefore greater freedom in teaching. The teacher who has planned his lesson wisely” enters the class-room without anxiety, ready to embark with confidence upon what he understand and prepared to carry it to a work-man like conclusion. He has foreseen the difficulties that are likely to arise, and prepared himself to deal with them. He knows the aim his lesson is intended to fulfill, and he has marshaled his own sources for the purpose”

vii) Lesson planning stimulates the teacher to introduce pivotal questions and illustrations and thus it makes the class more interesting and the students can grasp the lesson more easily.

If hit-or-miss techniques are to be avoided in education, the task of education must be taken earnestly. It certainly entails hard work. “Yet it is potentially the most rewarding sort of professional work that a teacher can do, because in this planning, the teacher has the opportunity to use every bit of his skill, intelligence, ability and personality…in short, every opportunity to become a really fine teacher.” Regardless of how long he has served the profession, no teacher should enter a classroom without a lesson plan developed for that specific class.


Essentials of a Lesson Plan:

It is rather difficult to specify the essentials of a lesson plan. An outline that serves one teacher best may not server another at all. A safe statement to make is, “ The plan which best serves the individual teacher is for him, at least, the best plan to use.” In fact, successful teaching depends mainly upon two factors; a careful but flexible plan, and a teacher so secure in the plan that he feels free to change it as the lesson develops and the needs of the children or students require. The plan is to be used as a guide rather than as rule of the thumb. The teacher should have the courage to depart from it when the needs of the students demand.

The pre-requisites for good lesson planning are:

i) The teacher must have mastery of and adequate training in the subject matter and activities from which the master has been selected for certain lesson. In the words of Yoakam and Simpson : “ No teacher can map out a proposed unit or write even a single daily plan without knowing thoroughly the field in which he is working”. When the teacher knows what of the lesson, he can concentrate on how of it.

ii) The teacher must know his students thoroughly. He must not only know the fact of social studies but also what part of Social Studies will be meaningful to his pupils and how to organize his material in a psychological rather than merely a logical fashion. He must understand his students’ traits and interests in order to know how to plan for them.

iii)Awareness of various principles and techniques of teaching is essential for successful lesson planning.

iv) Awareness of individual differences in the class is another useful pre-requisites.

v) A basic understanding of the aims of education is also necessary. It will give the teacher width or breadth of outlook on the problems of education.

vi) It must ensure active students participation.

vii) It is essential in planning to know as accurately as possible what knowledge of the topic the children already posses.



Marks of a Good Lesson Plan:

In order that a teacher may make a suitable lesson-plan as his guide, he should know the essential elements of a good lesson plan.

These are as follows:

a) A good lesson plan should be preferably written.

b) Objectives, both general and specific, should be clearly stated.

c) The lesson plan ought to be built on the appreciative background of the class. In other words, it should be related to the previous works or lessons.

d) The materials of instruction or subject- mater should be well selected and organized.

e) A good lesson plan indicates well-selected and directed learning activities of the students.

f) The plan is to indicate all apparatus that can be used for the particular period- maps, charts, and diagrams on the blackboard, films and other audio-visual aids.

g) A good lesson plan includes one or two definite assignments for pupils. An assignment projects the immediate lesson into the next situation.

h) The references or the readings should be indicated in the plan.

i) No lesson plan is complete without including certain evaluation exercise. These exercises may be in the form of recapitulatory questions, problems to be solved and assimilation tests.

j) There should be clear indication of the time allotment of the class to be taught, of the average age of pupils, of the subject or units and the sub-unit.

k) Each lesson plan should have a place for self-criticism. After the plan is completed and used in an actual situation, the teacher should criticize and write into the plan all the improvements for future reference.

Stages in a Daily Lesson Plan:


The objective of lesson planning is to discover the elements to be taught during the teaching of the lessons. This planning has to be done in an appropriate manner and style.

In the planning of daily lesson, there are three different stages, they are as follows:

a) Pre-Teaching Planning

b) Planning During Teaching

c) Post-Teaching Planning.



a) Pre-Teaching Planning: Before teaching a lesson to a class, the teacher prepares note at home. Then he thinks over everything of the lesson i.e. what he is going to present, how he is going to present, what technique he is going to use, which audio-visual aids he is going to make use of etc. These preparations are Pre-Teaching Planning.

b)Planning During Teaching: Planning is important at each step of a lesson. It is well known fact that planning is of unique importance before going to the classroom, and planning at the time of actual teaching is all the more important. While actually teaching in the class, the teacher is to plan the blackboard writing in systematic way, plan the activities of the students etc. The teachers also should know what type of mistakes the students would commit and on the spot he tries to think of their solution too. Whatever is presented to the students and whatever is to be done by them all needs to be very systematic. The point is that planning is very much needed even when the lesson is in progress.


c) Post-Teaching Planning: Post-Teaching Planning is that stage when the teacher has finished the classroom teaching. At this state, he is to see how far he has been successful in teaching. He also brings to his mind the good and bad points of his teaching. He plans about the correction of written work enlisting the mistakes of the students, preparation of exercises for improvement etc.

By and large we find that the three stages are very important from planning point of view. The success of a lesson depends upon a number of factors. A good lesson plan alone doesn’t ensure its excellent teaching. So there is a need of good teacher and a good lesson plan. Only then we can have satisfactory execution.



Types of Lessons:


As per the book “ Methods and Techniques of Teaching” by S.K Kochhar, There are three types of Lesson Plans, They are as follows:

a) Knowledge Lesson
b) The Skill Lesson
c) The Appreciation Lesson


a) Knowledge Lesson:

For imparting knowledge in a systematic manner, a set of procedure has to be followed. Certain psychological units of the lesson have to be decided. Various attempts have been made from time to time to evolve the different steps. Here is a comparative study of these steps given by Herbert, Herbertians and Dewey:


Herbert Herbertians Dewey

Clearness Preparation Coming upon a problem
Presentation or difficulty

Association Comparison and Gathering data making a
Abstraction hypothesis

System Generalisation Developing a Theory

Method Application Verifying the theory



b) Skill Lesson:

To learn various skills is a human need. Psychology has confirmed the claim that the use of muscles is not only for the body; it is also good for the mind. “No impression without expression”, clearly speaks of the value of skill. Rousseau wrote a long time back, “ If I have made my meaning clear, you ought to realize how bodily exercise and mutual work unconsciously arouse thought and reflection in my pupil. He must work like a peasant and think like a philosopher if he is not to be as idle as a savage”. No wonder great importance is attached to skill lessons.

The arts of reading, writing, counting, speaking and singing, the representational art of drawing, painting and modeling, and crafts like wood-work, metal-work, cookery and needlework, while they contain intellectual elements and involve knowledge, are the first and foremost affairs of skill. Not only that. We are not only to be concerned with the teaching of the techniques of the skills but also with its creative aspects.

Methods of teaching Skill:

A skill may be taught by any of the following techniques:

i) Demonstration
ii) Verbal Instruction.


c) The Appreciation Lesson:

The appreciation lesson aims at developing the aesthetic sense of the pupils. It aims to enable the pupils to appreciate beauty as expressed in color, form and sound. The main objective of such type of lesson is to develop the emotions against the acquisition of skill or knowledge. It is said, “ Youth wants colour, life, passion, the poetry of revolt”. As such aesthetic cannot be neglected in school.

It is believed that aesthetic appreciation cannot be taught but like religion, it can be at least “caught”. Some critics declare that formal lessons are a snare, perhaps an obstacle to emotional enjoyment-but it needs to be emphasized that aesthetics cannot be neglected in the school. The pupils have to be given training for discerning and enjoying beautiful or other excellence, especially in art, music and literature. Human mind can arise above surroundings and can experience a sense of beautiful even in unlikely places.
A lesson in appreciation is for enjoyment and requires stirring of feelings and emotions. As such teaching it with formal steps may not be useful. No definite procedure for the conduct of such lesson can be suggested.


The three types of lessons have been discussed not that the three aims-to impart knowledge; to impart skill and to enable the pupils to appreciate- are to be achieved exclusive of each other. To know, to feel and to do are the ultimate of living; they are indissolubly bound together. Any analysis of method is so far formal and artificial, and the teacher together with his pupils must achieve synthesis, which reunites the components in experience. The teacher is greater than the method he uses, and the students are greater than teacher, for the teacher is to serve the students, and to help them to achieve their freedom. This aim transcends all, for the purpose of education is to enable the child to live a richer life by development of his natural powers within the framework of society. Thus a proper planning and execution of teaching materials would be a great help in this matter.







Specimen of a Lesson Plan



Teachers Name: XYZ

Subject: English

Class: X

Topic: The Umbrella Man


(Intensive Reading)

Instructional Aids to be used:

Blackboard, Chalk, Flash Cards, Charts and Diagrams showing the picture of a pavement.


Instructional Objectives in Behaivoural Terms:


Knowledge:

i) The students will acquire the knowledge of new words and phrases

ii) They should be able to recognize and also recall those words.


Understanding:

The students should be able to understand the ideas given in the prose lesson.


Skills:

The students should to able to develop the different linguistic skill such as
listening , speaking, reading and writing.

Application:

i) The students should be able to make use of few words in their day to day life situations
ii) They should be able to read the newspaper and other such reading materials better way.

Subject Matter:


Lesson No. 1 – The Umbrella Man


Thought Content:

The narrator is a girl of twelve years. She is narrating the incident that has happened with her and her mother yesterday. Yesterday she went to the dentist with her mother. Her tooth had to be filled. The dentist filled her teeth and then they went to a café. The mother had coffee and the girl enjoyed the ice-cream. But then when they came out to the street, it started raining. They looked for a taxi and the mother wished that they had a car of their own. Just then an old man of about seventy, came up to them. He looked rich and had a costly silken umbrella over his head. In a very polite and gentle way, he said he was in trouble and wanted some help. The mother was always suspicious of strangers. So she looked at him with suspicion. As a result she did not trust the stranger.

Previous Knowledge Testing:

In order to test the knowledge of the students, the teacher would ask the following questions: -

i) Name the lessons that you have read from your book.
ii) What does the word ‘Umbrella’ mean?
iii) Have you read the lesson“ The Umbrella Man I”?
iv) How many persons are there in the story?



Announcement of the Topic:

Once the teacher finds out the lack of knowledge of the students on that particular story. He will begin as, “ Dear students, we shall study the lesson entitled “ The Umbrella Man”.


Presentation:

Step I - The teacher will have a model reading of a paragraph. While doing the reading, he would ask the students to listen carefully and remember how to pronounce certain words. The students should keep their books open.

Step II – The teacher will point out the difficult words occurring in the paragraph or will ask the students what are the words they find very difficult. The teacher will write those words in the blackboard.



Step III - The teacher will take the help of pictures, flash cards, blackboard drawings to teach those difficult words and other phrases. After a good discussion, the teacher will ask the students to use those words in a sentence. Some grammar work can be practiced side by side.

Examples:

1) Yesterday
(Asking the students where did some of them go yesterday)

2) Already

Is it 8.30……….

3) Pavement
(By showing a chart or a picture)


Step IV - Silent Reading by the Class.


Step V - The Teacher will ask individual students to do the loud reading. Correction if any, will be made while a student reads.

Step VI- The Teacher will ask the class if anyone has any difficulty and if there is any, he will discuss or explain it.

Step VII- To test the comprehensions of the students, the teacher would ask the following questions:

a) Who is the narrator of the story
b) Where did they go yesterday?
c) Why did they go to the dentist?
d) What did the man in the street ask them?

The teacher would try to evaluate the students according to the answers he gets from the students and if there is any problem, he will explain it again.


Homework: The teacher will ask the students to read a similar kind of story at home. He will also ask to write some sentences using the following words:

Café, Stranger, Pavement etc.

Step VII- After the presentation of the lesson, the teacher would evaluate his performance and would try to find out if there is anything that has not been completed properly and if there is any, he would try to improve his way of presentation and will prepare the lesson well.




Conclusion:

The Lesson Plan is a guide. It is a plan of action. It points out what has already been done, in what direction the students should next be guided and helped and the immediate work to be taken up. Careful Planning is the foundation of all good teaching. A lesson plan is not a dictator or a crutch. If it is followed slavishly, it will rob the lesson of spontaneity and make the classroom procedure stilted and lifeless. The lesson plan should he adapted to needs of the class, the learning situation as well as the nature of subject. Thus if a lesson plan is done with wise analysis considering all prose and cones surely it will be beneficial to all student and make teaching and learning a systematic and enjoyable. Let every teacher work towards a better teaching and creation of better humans by imparting valuable knowledge to all students today in days to come.



BIBLIOGRAPHY



A. S. K. KOCHHAR: Methods And Techniques of Teaching


B. BHATIA & BHATIA: The Principles And Methods of Teaching, Reprinted-2003


C. GREEN G.H: Planning The Lesson, London: University of London Press, 1948


D. RICE W.H. (Ed): Planning The Modern Language Lesson
Syracuse (N.Y): Syracuse U.P. 1948

E. V.V. Yardi : Teaching English in India Today

INIDIANNESS OF INDIAN ENGLISH POETRY, By Litton Prosad Mowalie,Pune

Indian English Poetry



Indian English Literature is an endeavour of showcasing the rare gems of Indian writing in English. From native explosion, Indian English has become a new from of Indian culture, and voice in which Indian speaks out to the outside world. Poets, novelists, essayists, dramatists have been making significant contributions to world literature. In the post Independence era, and the past few years have seen a massive flourishing of Indian English writing in the form of poetry and prose.

The British who came to India in the 17th Century brought their culture and religion. These two social forces are so influential that their impacts are still found in Indian literature. We still come across many pinches of foreign test in our Indian Literature. As a result, most of our earlier writers tried their hands in the manipulation of English as a medium of expressions and many were successful and have got good reputation till today.

One of the prominent personality Vilas Sarang comments that the Pre-Independence writings were very limited in production because the Indian English poets were too derivative and tried to be “English” poets instead of letting the Englishness or the Indianness to take care of it. The problem faced by Indian English poet in the early stage was the process of publication of their work. His works published by different publishers; hardly one poet can publish one or two volume consecutively.
Since Independence, the poets freed themselves from the clutches of Englishness and started writing in a very Indian manner, which gives high impetus on Indian Literature. Indian English poetry has marked a very promising bright future in the field of literature.





Indianness of Indian English Poetry


Introduction:


Indian English poetry is very different from its western counter part in the theme, language, style of writing, imagery etc. Every writer has source of inspiration of influence. It is this source that makes Indian English Poetry ‘Indian’. Indian writers are very much influenced by the Indian culture and customs, traditions etc. The writer also writes for Indian audience, so it has to have an Indian appeal, which is likable to all people. The writers also write for non-Indian audiences, and to them the feature of Indianness makes it exotic and gives a deep feeling and experience of real India.

Indian poetry in English is said to have begun with Henry Louis Vivian Derzio who was not only poet but also a teacher of poetry. He was an Indian in the sense because his mother was an Indian, his father was a Portuguese. He inherited a great love for India from his mother, and from his father a strong prejudice against Hindus and Hinduism. His writings were criticized for being too western and Christian in outlook to think and write as an Indian, yet his writing has stirred many English-educated to write poetry. His poem such as the ‘harp of India’ shows his interests for India.

Indianness is an element of the poem, which shows India through its language, imagery, sensibility or anything, which makes the Indian as ‘Indian’. Indianness in a poem is something that is not really definable yet remains a very remarkable character in Indian poems. Indianness can be defined in terms of what and how Indians are and what makes them what they are.


Definition:

It is easy to say that being Indian poets, our poets create Indianness in their poetry. However, it is not easy to define Indianness clearly. Yet, the simple meaning can be sated as follows.

Simply speaking, Indianness is the quality, which must be present in the great works of all Indian writers. Prof. David McCutchion defines “Indianness” as “life-attitudes” and “modes of perception”. Prof. V.K. Gokak Defines Indianness as “ a composite awareness in the matter of race, milieu, language and religion”. Similarly, according to Paul Vergese, “ Indianness is nothing but depiction of Indian culture. Thus, Indianness is the sum total of cultural patterns of India, deep rooted in ideas and ideas which form the minds of India”







Qualities of Indianness in Indian English Poetry

Indian Poets writing in English around fifties have produced a fairly voluminous body of verse that is often deeply rooted in the traditional Indian sensibility and is yet strikingly modern in expression. The question of Indianness is not merely a question of the material of poetry, or even sensibility, it is tied up with the factor called the audience. Indian English poets write for Indian audience, but they also write quite inevitably, for non-Indian, western audience. Thus, consciously or unconsciously they cannot help using their Indianness at least some of the time, in some way, to a greater or lesser extent. This had become a way of identifying oneself for the early Indian English poets, even the best modern Indian English poets continue to exploit ‘Indianness’, but in a more subtle and sophisticated manner.

Every human being is influenced by the environment, culture and tradition of his time and place. Just as western poets show their culture Indian English poets also show the same characteristic. Indian English poets such as A.K Ramanujan depict the Hindu tradition of Cremation and the process of throwing the ashes in the river in ‘ The Obituary’

“Being the burning type,
he burned properly
at the cremation”.

It is easier for a writer to write about what he sees and hears. Like William Wordsworth who wrote about the ‘daffodils’ after he saw thousands of daffodils in a valley, he is inspired to write a poem by what he saw. Likewise Kamala Das saw wrote ‘the dance of the eunuchs’ when she saw them dancing on the streets of Calcutta. Wordsworth had stated, “ Poetry is a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings, recollected in tranquility”. For an Indian English poet living in India what else would touch the emotion other than India and the things happening in and around it? Therefore, Indianness can be found in their poems by default.

The best that a poet can hope to do is try to be as natural and honest as possible, and to concentrate upon the poetical enrichment of material, and not to be content with the decorative use of Indian imagery. More important than the level of material, the imagery, the detail, is the level of sensibility. An Indian English poet expressing an Indian sensibility will speak more authentically and achieve greater depth and possibly greatness, than by assuming cosmopolitan stance.

Now that the Indian English poet is writing in a foreign language, which was adopted and used by Indians in a very small percentage, mostly for formal, official or professional purpose, and it is not really a language of the streets. It has been observed that Indians tends to use English that are outdated and wooden. Due to this the poets also have to write in a language, which the reader will understand and will feel to be real. This makes it interesting for the non-Indian reader because it gives the Indian experience more vividly and makes it exotic. Poems such as “ The Railway Clerk’ by Nissim Ezekiel makes intensive use of English as it is used by Indians. The suffix,’-ing’ is used in a wrong manner unnecessarily; this is very typical for Indian users of English. And the sentence constructions are not up to the standard use of language but the way Indians use. It is not that the poet is not able to write in good English but to show how Indians use English and the poet used it as a vehicle for humor and satire. Yet through the language we can find the Indianness of the poem. Indians writing their poems in such a language maybe attributed to the fact that most ‘educated Indians’ are ‘Bilingual’ or ‘Multilingual’ and they hear a lot of language, other than English around them, as there are many different other languages in India. There are many prominent Indian English writer who also write in their own language. A.K Ramanujan has published two collections of verse in Kanada and translated some from Kanada to ancient Tamil. Kamala Das has written prose in Malayalam. In any case the poet’s other language will surely affect to the greater or lesser extent the way he or she writes. And the use of Indian words in their poems is also prominent due to ‘Bilingualism’. And all this attributes contribute towards the Indianness of English.

Indian poet cannot help but to exploit Indianness in their poems. Indian English poets increasingly feel the need to evolve an Indian Idiom, and not stick to British rule of correctness. The poet may like to write about the superstitions of crows or those details about the cow but in the readers mind he may do it for exotic appeal to non-Indian readers, even though the poet may be able to justify his Indian material for poetic reason. The validity of Indian English poetry depends on the creation of a new idiom- Indian English Idiom which is distinct from the idioms of the writers all over the world who write in English. There is a demand as it were in the past for the creation of an Indian English idiom to give authenticity and identity to post nineteen-sixty Indian poetry in English. It is a fact that recent poets like Nissim Ezekiel, Kamala Das, Shiv K. Kumar Daruwalla and a few others have succeeded to some extent in creating a new Idiom for Indian English. For example, Ezekiel uses a number of Indian words like “guru, goonda, burkha, chapatti, pan” etc. These obviously make it more Indian in sensibility.

Somehow a reader is always able to find what the Indian poet writes as ‘Indian’ because the Indian poets are tuned to be Indian consciously or unconsciously. Any other Indian poets in their own language are free from this entrapment. This is due to the fact that an Indian poet writing in English will be compared to its western counterpart and therefore its differences are noted. An Indian writer cannot escape being Indian in His writing because he is an Indian.

Indianness can also have positive effect for a writer. An Indian reader would prefer to read a poem that they can relate to, while at the same time, the same poem will be read by a western reader, will have the Indian effect and exoticness of the eastern world. A reader will be able to identify the poem as a work of an Indian.

Indianness can also have a negative effect. Readers from the west maybe confused with the Indian usage of English. It is to be noted that Indian English have not achieve a status of its own yet. C.B Cox notes that “ We now accept that American English has a character of its own,’ and that is the result of “ a tradition of great American literature. Indian English has yet to achieve this status…this creation of living language, a truly Indian English, is the task of the novelist and the poet”.

Indian poets have a certain disadvantages when writing in English, but poets always have ways of coping with handicaps, and sometime talents performs brilliantly with one hand tied at the back. And Indian poets are still able to perform brilliantly in spite of many handicaps.

Indianness: Illustrations from the Prominent Poets:



1) Jayanta Mahapatra:

All the prescribed poems of Jayanta Mahapatra deal with the Orian Landscape and possess Indian sensibility. In “Dawn at Puri”, Mahapatra underlines the importance of Puri and what it means to the Hindus. Women wish to die at Puri to attain salvation.
Mahapatra writes:

“ her last wish to be cremated here
twisting uncertainly like light
on the shifting sands”

The other points like the worshipping of the widows and their rites, crow’s cawing and the skull indicating poverty of India etc.bear Indianness

The poem “Exile” also presents about an Indian man. The village near the sun burnt hills, dead bodies burning on pyres, the protagonist’s ailing parents, the long-haired priest, the logic of good and evil etc. depict Orian and Indian life. The key lines that reveal Indianness are the following:

“Where a country’s ghost
Pull my eyes towards birth
It is an obscure relative I’ve never seen”.

The Lines express the protagonist’s or the poet’s hope for renaissance or renewal of past glory of India.

Thus Jayanta Mahapatra’s landscape theme includes all Indian spirit or sensibility and search for roots themes.


2) A.K. Ramanujan:

Prominent poet A.K.Ramanujan’s poetry also bears the note of Indianness. Indian sensibility can be called one of the themes of his poetry. The Indian sensibility of Ramanujan is sharpened by his Western education and environment. Ramanujan portrays the Indian scene from across the Atlantic with complete artistic detachment and irony.

In his Poem “ A River” – he talks about a river. A river is Indian in theme and location. The place is Madhurai and particularly Vaikai River. The description of the Vaikai reminds us any Indian river. The straw and women’s hair clogging the Watergates, the stones like buffaloes and crocodiles etc are Indian images. The names of the cows taken away by the flood, Gopi and Brinda are typically Indian. The Tamil poet belongs to India. And the Poet’s style bears Indian sensibility.

“Obituary” another poem by Ramanujan is also entirely Indian in every sense. The very idea of legacy is Indian. The things left by dead father are essentially Indian. The English used by the poet is also typically Indian.


3) Nissim Ezekiel:

The notable poet Nissim Ezekiel too brings out the quality of Indianness in many of his poems. In his poem “ The Railway Clerk”, the poet brings out the terms of relationships between the railway clerk and his wife. The poet writes the words of the clerk as follows. The clerk says,

“ My wife is always asking for more money.
Money, money, where to get money?”

This kind of expression and relationships are only possible in India, Thus it shows the Indian situation very clearly and bears the quality of Indianness.

Conclusion:

Indianness is as inherent and integral to the poet’s true core as the peels of onion. It finds an authentic expression on the levels of both experience and idiom. Beliefs attitudes, thought processes, perception of the past and the present colour, the poet’s experience while images, allusions, myths, ritualistic patterns and similar other devices forms the texture of the idiom. On both these levels reader is aware of a typical, identifiable Indianness, which affords certain joy of recognition to the native readers and opens the cave of Ali Baba to the foreign reader.

It is not important for us to judge the work of an Indian English poet as ‘Indian’, but to find out if the poem is good or not. Indianness is just one of the characteristics of Indian English poems. If the poet is able to write in a good Indian sensibility, it is still a good poem. The language or the subject of Indian poem brings out the experience of Indian to non-Indian audience. As an Indian, the poet cannot hope to escape from Indianness, even though the Indianness in the poem maybe very subtle.

Indianness by itself cannot become a criterion or guarantee of aesthetic value. But the poet by being himself, contribute to the definition of Indianness, for Indianness is what Indians are.







Bibliography



a) K.S. Ramamurti, TWENTY-FIVE INDIAN POETS, Macmillian, 1995.


b) Vilas Sarang, INDIAN ENGLISH POETRY since 1950: an anthology, 1995


c) Dr.Shirish Chindale, Dr. Ashok Thorat : Approved Voices


d) King, Bruce P (2001). Modern Indian Poetry in English (Revised Edition), Oxford University press, New Delhi


e) Adil Jussawalla, Indian English Poetry, Published by Orient Longman Limited.


f) Other Source: WWW. GOOGLE.COM

Thoughts on birthday

Every birthday of my life has a significance, With the arrival of every birthday I am reminded that I am getting older and that my days on this earth are coming towards the end step by step. But it is also a time when I am reminded of my duties and my responsibilites that is given to me to serve the people and love God. Every birthday brings a special feeling in my heart, I feel thankful to God for keeping me safe for the whole year and I take another effort to begin a new year and a new walk .
This is the time when I can remember about my parents who with great effort and with much difficulty helps me to grow each day. It is the also the time when I can recognise my duties and concerns that I should have for my parents. In everyone's life , there comes a time when are desperate for friends, sometime we do feel their need very much because we need share our feelings sometime. Thus it becomes a time to feel the importance of every friends.As the clock clicked twelve at the night of 9th of November, many of friends kept on sending me birthday wishes, I have been getting messages whole night, I felt so much delighted that there are people who really cares and who really thinks about the goodness in friendship. It tells me that we should not only live for ourselves but also for others. We need one another everyday, we can never live isolation.
My birthday is nothing special from the day of other people. But it is my thoughts and my mission that makes it different. It is the day to reflect and focus on what I have done in my past years and what can I do in my future days. Though life seems to be very uncertain, yet we keep on holding our breath to face another new day and new year.
I thank God that He has kept me alive, I thank God that He has given me a hope to live another day, another brand new year. And I pray that His face shall shine upon me and to everyone that walks with him and puts an extra effort to have a close relationships with Him.
Thanks to all friends who have had come to make my day special. May the Love of God abide with you as you keep on celebrating your birthdays also.

Cognivitism Theory

Cognitivism Theory
By Jaishree

Because of all the limitations of behaivouristic theory, a new theory of Cognitivism came into existence. Obviously it is reaction to behaivouristic theory. Cognitivism is a theory of language learning emerged after 1960’s.

S---------R


The Behaviourist said that if there is a stimulus, there should be response. But according to cognitivist, something must mediate between the stimulus and response i.e cognitive function.

S-------------------------R
Cognitive Function


Cognitive means thinking ability. It is connected with mental process of understanding.
Cognitive theory assigns central role to mind. So mind is a cognitive map. When the learns mind react to the teaching then learning takes place. Though there is stimulus, the learners think about that for sometime, the learners give response to that. So Cognitivism theory doesn’t have mechanical approach towards learning. That’s why it modifies behaivouristic theory and give crucial importance to persons mind.

Experiment:-
There are monkey in the cage. They all are very hungry. Bananas are suspended to ceilings, but at very high point. The monkeys don’t know how to reach to bananas.
There is a popular phrase “set back thought” same like that one of the monkeys go back, think about that and solve the problem.
Only monkeys mind wants to solve the problem, only thy put the pieces of woods together and reach towards the bananas. From this experiment psychologist conclude that if animals can think to solve their problems, then human being also can do. So they conclude that human minds play very important role in solving the problem i.e learning.

If you observe the cat, before jumping from a wall, or from high positions, they do first observe spot carefully and think and then jump.

Dictionary of Applied Linguistic gives definition of Cognitivism as,
“Branch of psychology which deals with study of nature and learning of system of knowledge, particularly those involved in the thought, perception, comprehension, memory and learning.

Perception- attitude, comprehension, understanding.

For Cognitivism only stimulus is not important but all other factors i.e thought, perception, comprehension, memory and learning are very important. So other name for Cognitivism theory are mentalist or rationalistic approach.

Noam Chomsky made this theory very popular. He is interested in studying the relationships between language and human mind. According to Chomsky whenever there is a problem, a lot of transaction takes place into the mind.

In a very short span of time human brain is very active. So several thoughts, ideas come to human mind, into very short time i.e. very important.

Input-------------------------- ------------------Output
(utterances that the child produces)
(Utterances that a child hears)


See in this diagram, with limited amount of input, a child can produce unlimited utterances . So his mind plays a very important role.


Implications of Cognitivism theory to the Teachers and Learners:

1) In Cognitivism theory there is a great appeal to the learners intelligence. There is a lot of scope for creativity. In this theory learners are motivate to do experiments with language. They have given the opportunity to discover meaning everything was not told by the teacher.
2) Cognitivism theory believes that learning is a matter of perception and insight formation. The learner is motivated to discover new rules, do experiments so the learners’ role/there contribution is very important. In this theory teachers have to follow the inductive method, no deductive method. In inductive method of teaching, students are encouraged to find rules from given examples, but in deductive method teachers proved ready made information. But teachers always think that students are very weak to analyze the rule. Cognitivism theory gives a lot of scope to enrich the learner’s intelligence, thinking ability. In modern education system teachers are givers of and students are takers. So there is need to modify this method. Behaviourist believes that teaching is a stimulus but Cognitivism think it as creative process, so human mind has to be considered and motivated.
3) Errors are welcomed in Cognitivism theory. Mistake is stepping towards success. So everything you learn by committing mistake, they are considered to be inevitable. If you want to master something then you have to make mistake. By using trial and error method, learners can learn. So get multiple interpretations. There is no punishment to the students. The student also can use problem-solving method. If they have problems, then they can reach to the solutions.
4) According to Cognitivism theory learns should be active, or they should not be passive or only recipient student mind should be involved in the process. If the students involved in the process of teaching and learn then they can easily understand the text. If the discussions are on the students’ problem, then they should be involved in the discussions.
5) Motivate to form hypothesis: According to Cognitivism theory, students/learns have to play the role of monitor means they have to do self-corrections and generalizations, which is very important. This theory believes that mere drilling is mechanical or unproductive; students can’t learn everything by drilling/repetition/repeated exercise. So it will be mechanical/unproductive. In this theory teachers have to play the role of a coordinator and students have to understand errors and correct them. According to Cognitivism theory students have to understand or be satisfied with teaching and if he/she feel, they should be allowed to make self-corrections.
6) According to Cognitivism theory teachers have to play multiple roles i.e co-coordinator, facilitator (to help), motivator, counselor, friend and guide etc. In modern days teachers are only lecturers but Cognitivism expands the role of a teacher.
7) In behaivouristic framework learners are expected to learn language item by item. But Cognitivism believes that, human mind is very sensitive, so lots of thinking is going on in the mind so they don’t move from item to item. IN this theory teachers try to establish links and connections among topics so Cognitivism helps to make teaching more flexible. According to Cognitivism human mind can go at one point and again return back old point. So while teaching new topics teacher can return or revisit old topics

Limitations of Cognitivism theory:

1) Time consuming method. It gives lots of importance to students, their thinking ability, students are motivated to do experiment with language. So a lot of time is needed for this.
2) Cognitivism theory is not useful in larger classes. If there are large numbers of student, then it is not possible to think about every individual student to do experiment.
3) Adopting Cognitivism theory is very difficult, because this theory expects a lot from teachers. For this theory teachers have to creative. Unfortunately our teachers are not more creative and well equipped. Cognitivism theory is ideal but the problem is with our teachers it demands more from teachers. But as a teacher we have to follow the right approach and combine both theories.

Memorable Day of My Life

It was a lovely day we thought as we prepared ourselves to go for S.S.C examination centre with our bag and baggages. It was a half day journey from our school to the place of our examination. We loaded our things on vans. Some boys were left and some boys went ahead with their bi-cycle. We reached the spot safely because we had gone ahead by bi-cycle and we had been waiting for our things to come. But as we awaited , a sudden bad news spoiled our good mood. We were informed that our van drowned in the canal as it was coming. It was a sad and pathetic situation, and it was a kind of scene that I had to experience for the first time. We were informed that all our bags got wet and all the girls were just wailing for such a situation. They were just thinking what would happen to them. Finally the vans carrying our bags reached the spot where we had been waiting. Everyone was trying to see whether their bags are fine or got wet. I was worried about my bag too, but by my luck I guess, I found my bag dry and safe. But I felt bad for my frieds whose bags got soaked with water. Most of them were crying because their books were totally wet and they were unable to open them. Unfortunately, It became night so they had to wait for the morning to dry them in the sunshine.Some of them tired to dry their books from the kitchen fire, they had to do it because they had their exams just next day morning. Though this event was not so singnifincant but I have kept it in my memory as one of the memorable day of my life. Life offers and brings many good and bad things and we really sometime learn many things from this events and happenings.

By Suborna Marak
M.A Part 1

Reformation of our mind.

Human beings are the supreme creation of God. According to Bible, it is said that Human beings were created to take care of everything that we can see all around us. Human beings supposed to be the caretaker. They are to care for everything. But many a time we find that we do the opposites. Instead of taking care fo things, we play the part of spoiling and destroying what is given to us. And here lies the problem. Many a time we are too selfish for ourseleves that we are ready to destroy to get what we want. We donot bother for the nature, we donot bother for our future generation. We neglect our duty and we fail to achieve what we suppose to achieve. We need to think and reconsider this aspect and this must be the motto of every educated citizen of the world to see that they bring about a change in their attitude and then influence others to do the same. It is possible to keep this world as a better place by a combined effort and it must start today. What is your role to it? are you willing to consider it and make this world a better place? Ask this question to yourself and lets change our mind and work together to make this world a better one.

Dream Big

Many a time I have realized that many of us donot acheive great things in life because we donot know how to dream big and how to cherish a big dream. We are too scared to dream big and hope for a better day. We think all the negatives first instead of thinking positives. Our negative thoughts are our greatest enemy, it may kill our future and can make us passive and inactive. Many times we have the resources, abilities but we are reluctant to take any initiative to bring about a change of our attitude and do something different. Our thoughts are the first steps towards any actions and thus I feel that one must learn to think what he or she wants to do in life, and think positively about it and then with enthusiasm should go ahead. Someone said, "A life without a dream is a life without any hope and future". How many of us can live without a hope? hope is that burning candles that allow us to live another day, and I guess one must live with hope and to have a hope, one must dream, and to dream, one must learn to think. They are so interelated that they cannot be separated. Thus I fee everyone must dream big and dream to make a difference. Those of you who are going to read this blog for the first time, I want you to realize that this blog is created with a great dream that one day something will come out of it. Come on go ahead and read and enjoy the beauties of this blog... Hope you will enjoy and God bless you..