Lit Notes

                                    Tribute to a Great Teacher Great teachers must have empathy. They may never win awards, accolades, foreign scholarships or even have awards named after them. But they live on, for years, in the hearts of the students whom they have taught and helped to recover faith in themselves. I myself am a teacher, but I must admit that I too do not have the empathy quotient in adequate quantity. The country’s highest award for sports coaches- the Dronacharya or Drona Award is named after a man who lacked empathy, was arrogant and biased in his attitude. After all, he asked Ekalavya, the ardent tribal boy for his thumb. Drona foresaw that Ekalavya was an excellent archer, who if encouraged, had the capability to supersede Arjuna. Ekalavya was a poor tribal boy who aspired to learn archery from the greatest Gur...

A.K. Ramanujan begins his essay   Is there an Indian Way of Thinking? An Informal Essay  by framing the question in four different ways, following Stanislavsky’s method for judging the potential of actors. A.K.Ramanujan wonders if there is an Indian way of thinking. Ramanujan says that the Indian way of thinking is highly context-oriented. While the Western world celebrates egalitarianism and universality, India continues to uphold its caste- oriented, ancient principles and beliefs that indicate diversity, rather than universality.              India as a nation has always been adaptable to change. We have been able to successfully incorporate western ideas, beliefs, attire and customs with our very own traditional beliefs and attire. Ramanujan writes about his father, a South Indian Brahmin, who is an amalgamation of all the diverse cultures, beliefs and concepts that symbolise Indians’ ability to effectiv...

Two fears have assailed me since I started enjoying reading. The twin fears of memory loss and loss of eyesight have been present in MY subconscious mind for long. Reading fiction is something I love.  I love writing by women, not the acclaimed ones like Margaret Atwood, Doris Lessing and Nadine Gordimer. I love that which is usually dismissed as chicklit. But I find that it deals with ordinary people like me, with the same concerns and cares that I have. It comforts me that there are other women in other parts of the world who are experiencing the same worries, fears and anxieties that I experience.  It is very difficult to meet people who share our wavelength in every sense of the term, so when I meet somebody like that in a novel, I feel that someone somewhere has experienced what I have felt. So no matter what the world says, kudos to  CHICKLIT.