ARTICLE

 Who I am …

PRAMOD M DHENGLE

Asst. Professor of English

GES’s Dr. T. K. Tope Arts & Commerce College, Parel, Mumbai-12

E-mail: pmdswm@gmail.com

Cell No. : 7303298099

 

Life is mine, life is yours, life is everyone’s, but where is ‘Life’ and, well, where would you ‘find’ life of a life, all these differing phenomenon project our attitude and ambition, assumptions and assimilation, acceptance and attention. Projection is somewhat pretentious, doubtful, though in many contexts hidden and hired. The ‘self’ is broken itself, tormented and tutored, but an identity of ‘self’ is an identity of ‘parasites’, though somewhat being ‘harsh’ in term. The question we have ‘Who am I?’ defines, without conclusion and end, ‘life is short doing good is great’. Once again, each word is ambiguous and unanswerable as ‘good’, ‘short’, ‘life’, ‘great’, laughing cynically at us, not me, not you, not me but you, not we, not they, with an enquiring mood ‘who told you’ that ‘life is short and good is great’. And, obviously we laugh not to understand, but to accept. Psychologists criticise dualism, litterateurs find life in everything, socialists make an enquiry of man’s socially affected, inspired and lived experiences, economists are not happy with man’s ‘happiness’ as they want materialistic market-based economy. With this chaos, may be happy ‘chaos’, role of body and mind is minimised for the time being, and only body, a material view of ‘identity’ and ‘existence’ comes forth to convince ‘who I am’. With such a symbolic representation of ‘reality is virtual’ devises ‘a scenic panorama of humans’ developed intelligence stating a concept of ‘life’ and propagating ‘life is short, grab your time’. No words can convey, and no philosophy can define ‘life’. Life is individual’s, though common to appear. Nobody can understand ‘who I am’, though others interpret and connotate. A play of ‘denotations and connotations’ continues to create ‘meaning’, meaning what you like or don’t like, what you hate and love and so all, a web of binary for our ‘attitude’, changing with situation and experiences, so called ‘status’ or ‘life’. And, this binary starts a play of ‘I’ and ‘You’, which never ends and nobody wins, though we just conclude for the time being that ‘I am not you’ or ‘I am like you’.

Thus, life is a traffic signal, focus and follow, otherwise troubled by others and punished by authority. Just a metaphor to driving towards ‘destination’. 

Nevertheless, I repeat to conclude ‘Who I am…’

Live or Live not,

Life is YOURS,

Some say lazy, others will say hardworking,

Choice is YOURS,

You are a part,

But, never part with YOU.

Never part with you!

Life is yours; choice is yours.

 Why is Education So Important in Our Life?

Dr. MONCY VARGHESE

Lecturer

M.L.B.G.G.H.S.School, Rajnandgaon (C.G.) 9425554230

When I started thinking about why education is so important, I remembered my school days almost all years when I used to spend time by doing homework specially on math homework, wake up at 6:00 AM and get ready for to go to stadium for hockey game and then at 11to school. I remember my teachers, school subjects, the study and the fun! I never really hated school. But I have seen many of my peers who hated going to school; I have had some friends who did not like the idea of studying. I know it will be hard and very challenging. However, I believe I can handle the challenge.

The first thing that strikes me about education is knowledge gain. Education gives us a knowledge of the world around us and changes it into something better. It develops in us a perspective of looking at life. DISCIPLINE, SYSTEMATIC PLANNING helps us build opinions and have points of view on things in life. People debate over the subject of whether education is the only thing that gives knowledge. Some say education is the process of gaining information about the surrounding world while knowledge is something very different. They are right. But then again, information cannot be converted into knowledge without education. Education makes us capable of interpreting things, among other things. It is not just about lessons in textbooks. It is about the lessons of life. One thing I wish I can do is, to provide education for all: no child left behind and change the world for good!! ONLY education does not lead you to success but your behaviour, your positivity and faith in God leads you to achieve your goal. 

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ENGLISH OF THE CLASS AND OF THE MASS

Dr. Prasanta Chakraborty
Retired Associate Professor
Agartala , Tripura

Although English is no longer a foreign language for the educated Indians at present, it is still a language of authority for the masses. The common illiterate or semi-literate people of our country look at the English speaking Indians with awe and respect even now, which the suited booted Indian English speakers enjoy very much. English speaking people can keep themselves aloof from the masses and can extract extra advantages from the mass.

Now English becomes a matter of panic for most Indian students when it is taught in the classroom and because they have to face a year ending exam too. Why? Because we need to read some texts in a language which we don’t use in our daily conversation. Although Indian English has been modified to a great extent to suit the Indian culture and civilization, yet the threat about the language that the colonial rulers had instilled in us to make us slaves still persist. 

            The formal or standard variety of English is being taught within a classroom. In other words, it is the Queen’s English that we are taught in the classroom. The Indian student has to imitate colonizer’s language what Bhabha terms as ‘mimicry’. Even today, under the spell of colonial education, our student in the classroom is compelled to be a mimic so as to adjust himself/ herself into the colonial structure of English learning, respond in English and adopts the structure of learning which western education has taught him/her. The mimic student is encouraged to follow the colonial method of learning English but in effect, most of the students falter and disrupt the learning process. Very often, the student has to learn unwillingly the grammar of the language, the standard pronunciation, accent and intonation, the spelling of words some of which are very complicated for the Indian learners. This variety known as Queen’s English is not the one that the common people use in our daily life. As common people, we don’t care about the grammar of the language. Neither are we concerned about the spelling, intonation and pronunciation of words. So the use of the language by the common people becomes Benglish, Hinglish etc. and we feel comfortable with this sort.

In a way, the English of the classroom carries on the colonial hangover which is distinct from the daily use of the common man. So what is /pʊə/ in classroom is not the same among the masses or /ˈdaɪəz/ is not pronounced the same way as it is done outside the classroom. ˈwɪmɪn’   of classroom English becomes ˈwʊmən’ in most cases when used by the common people. We pronounce ‘r’ clearly of the word ‘car’ whereas it is silent in a classroom.

The English of the mass has the cultural influence of the linguistic community to which a group of people belongs to while a classroom has to follow strictly the set rules of the language. It’s hardly possible for the mass to overcome the mother tongue pull when they speak in the language. There will be our endeavor to overcome this mother tongue pull and be closer to classroom English.

But there seems to be a clash of ideology between the classroom and the mass. While the classroom stands for standardization of language, the mass follows a dialect of the language that revolts against this standardization in the classroom. Making this difference, the mass seems to give a clear message that the Standard version bearing the mark of colonialism is not acceptable in independent India. Ours is a chutnified English which we relish as we use it in our daily life and feel it can resist the spread of the colonial English in India.