The most awaited US presidential debate aired on TV news channels around the world on Monday, the 26th and Tuesday, the 27th of September. After watching this debate, many of us were left stunned by Donald Trump. While I would like to comment on many of his political and economic “plans”, I will confine myself to discussing… Read More Teacher Tuesdays: When an English Teacher Corrected Donald Trump
David Walton explains the origins of culture studies in his book Introducing Culture Studies: Learning Through Practice. His writing is easy to understand and he reiterates whenever possible that this book is meant to educate its readers in the art of practical culture studies as opposed to dry rote-learning. Walton states that this book will… Read More Monday’s Musings: The Ghost of Matthew Arnold and Culture Studies
(Note: This article was written on Sunday as the play Anything Can Happen starring Anupam Kher was put up as part of the Times of India Theatre Festival, Sunday the 25th, 2016) I had the amazing opportunity of going to watch Anupam Kher’s solo performance “Anything Can Happen” on Sunday the 25th, at the JNC… Read More sARTurday: Anything Can Happen by Anupam Kher
“Who makes a bayen out of a person?” “God.” Mahasweta Devi has always written powerful stories about tribal life and these stories are always located in a particular area that is a geographic reality, like Tohar, Palami or Lohardaga. The conflicts in her stories implicate local, ethnic, class, gender and language dissonances. “Bayen” is no… Read More Friday Reviews: “Bayen” by Mahasweta Devi
This is an article on the book The Exercise of Freedom written by Susie Tharu and K Satyanarayana. I wrote this almost three years ago and I’m finally publishing it on this blog. I left it largely in this blog. It would seem that even by the year 2013, the year the book The Exercise of… Read More Theory Thursday: Dalit Writing in India
What are your views on translating texts from one language into English? Answer this in your head before reading this article. The general disposition about translation is a favourible one as it helps people who can read and write English gain access to written content from other languages. This helps in transmission of information and ideas from… Read More Wednesday’s Whiteboard: The Dangers of Translation
Let’s jump right in, shall we? There are nine parts of speech. They are the noun, the pronoun, the adjective, the verb, the adverb, the preposition, the conjunction, the interjection and the article. Information about these parts of speech is material for another blog post. Today, we will focus on the gerund, a certain type of… Read More Teacher Tuesdays: The Germane Gerund
The essay “Why Film Theory” in the book Preliminary states that, in the present, post-structural era that we live in, the discipline of Film Theory encompasses any approach from semiotics, to feminism, to eco-critical approaches. There is no single, canonical approach to studying a film as a text. And as a film buff and literature student, I think… Read More Monday’s Musings: How to Study Film Intellectually
Well, not a robot, really. An AI, to be more precise. But I get ahead of myself. Any movie genre from zombie-villes to “oh look, aliens are invading” to general prophecies about machines taking over litter the box office month after month. Also, romances set in these dystopian civilasations are not a new concept. However,… Read More sARTurday: To Love a Robot
Before you read this post, I suggest you read the poem by Allan Ginsberg. If you have not yet experienced a spiritual awakening at the hands of violent poetry, “Howl” will be your guide. The full poem can be read here. Ginsberg has cataloged various facets of his life in his work Howl creating a… Read More Friday Reviews: The Evolution of “Howl”
The English Teacher 