Chetan Bhagat: Half girlfriend debate

This blog is written as a part of online discussion at Department of English

Dilip Barad sir,

Dear All,

We have viewed two TV discussions on Chetan Bhagat’s new novel ‘Half Girlfriend’

 You are supposed to give your opinion on Chetan Bhagat Phenomenon in Indian English Literature.

Sem 1:

You can view Chetan Bhagat as Dryden views Shakespeare in comparison to Ben Johnson and other writers. He was able to see some merits along with demerits in Shakespeare. It will be an exaggeration if we say that Chetan Bhagat will be remembered as Shakespeare of India (in a sense that Shakespeare was popular dramatist with little critical acclaim in his days).

 

Sem 3:

Along with above given point, you can view it as fourth goal of Cultural Studies i.e. ‘Cultural Studies analyzes not only the cultural work, but also the means of production.”

How marketing has become important for selling literature?

Literature as a commodity.

Literature is a product to be sold to the consumers.

How far is it necessary in this process of ‘selling book’ to be politically, culturally, socially CORRECT?

If the writer writes about bitter truths of society / if he tries to present ugly X-Ray image of society/culture, WILL HE BE ABLE TO SELL HIS BOOKS?

If the answer is NO. Can we say that CB plays very safe in being politically, culturally, socially on the RIGHT side of the things?

Is that the secret of his success?

If NO. What else can be the secret KEY to unlock the secret of his stupendous success?

Following is my reply...

Respected sir,

Thank you very much for bringing into discussion very current issue of Chetan Bhagat.

Sir recently I have read Bhagat’s  novels One Night @ the Call Center  and Five point someone. and  also watch both of his videos.

While reading his novels I realize his great strength of story telling/narrative technique. Theme of his novels are largely  based on Young Generation of India.Characters  in the novel  One Night @ the Call Center  like Shyam, Varun, Military uncle,Priyanka, Esha and Radhika are LIFELIKE. In one or the another way we can compare ourself with the characters.stories of his novels are very common, it comes from our routine life but it is Bhagat’s creativity and way of presentation that makes it more interesting.

It is exaggeration to call him Shakespeare of our time but now a days he is one of the most popular English writer in our country. The reason is that when we read English or American literature it becomes difficult for all the readers to understand that concept of many of the books, like colonialism, imperialism, feminism, history of that country etc. because books represents culture of society  and we are not part of that society so it is difficult to understand. But when we read books of Chetan Bhagat his Setting/background, concept, characters, word selection every thing is Indian. Even word to word translation of hindi words and proverbs creats humour in the novel. when we read his novels it looks like as if we are watching movies or things are happening in front of our eyes, Just according to Dryden’s definition that play should be JUST and LIVELY image. He presents reality of our contemporary reality as it is(JUST). He brought out reality, truth of society(especially youth),  it may be harsh, difficult to accept. 

He is good writer ,writing about  current issues of the society and even readers are appreciating his writing then even critics are criticizing him, and calling him Salman khan or Rakhi sawant of Indian writing in English. It is critic’s job to criticize. But perhaps time will come when Chetan Bhagat will considered as a CLASSIC writer as now we have Shakespeare. If we look back into the history then we find that those writer who are consider as a greatest writer now a days , they were neither given importance in their lifetime nor their work was considered as a good work. There are many examples in which author themselves had burnt their books due to outer social, political and religion forces. Or they 

Missed history being created on 15th August? Enjoy extracts of PM's inspiring speech from Red Fort

This blog is written as a part of my online discussion about Prime Minister's speech.

Respected sir,

Thank you for sharing such a useful videos of the speech of our prime minister Naredra Modi, on 15^th august. I  was watching him live on the television. Really, he had delivered such a  well organized speech, talking about the different issues of our country. We have got independence many years ago, but still it seems that the development of our country is not at the level, where it should be. And Mr,P.M. is talking about that all issues, which is good for our country. He talk about the basic need of making toilet in villages ,is truly great thing. He talked about development, Swachch Bharat, Jan Dhan Yojna, Make in India, Aadarsh Gram Yojna and many other things. He talk about all the people like, villagers, industrialist, young people, farmers etc. thus it was really one of the great speech. Thank you   

Threats to Creativity and Freedom of Expression

This blog is written as a part of online discussion about following topic.

Dilip Barad sir:-

All students:

Here is attached a brief interview of Javed Akhtar.

There are some rumours about A R Rahman to give music in an Iranian film on Mohmad Paigambar. It is not permitted under Quran to portray Mohmad Paigambar in painting or moving picture. If A R Rahman is involved in such film, it may hurt religious sensibilities of Indian Muslims and so he is threatened that there may be Fatwa against him.

Secondly, there is a film being planned on the life of Tipu Sultan - a Muslim ruler of Mysore. It is rumoured that Rajnikant will play the role of Tipu Sultan. This has hurt religious sensibilities of Hindus. It is also belived that Tipu was against Tamils and so no Tamil should play any role in the biopic on Tipu.

Well, the majority exerts their likeness and prejudices over the minorities and in the process construct a 'culture'. The said culture is appropriate for the majority and so most of them believe it to be moral / right / true way of living life. Later on, such way of life is 'naturalised' and justified by mythical stories of brave people belonging to the majority.

Literary writers, by and large, are part of the process. At times, literary writers pose a threat or protest to such process. Such protests of past are not visible today ad history rarely takes notice of it. But we can read them as they happen while we are living. Observing contemporary times with spectacles of historical sense makes us aware of such process.

Here is an example in this small interview. Javed Akhtar writes that he would rethink several times to write a scene written in Sholay.

What is that scene? Why would he rethink before writing of such scenes?

What do you comprehend from the interview?

Be brief, precise and to the point in your reply.

The topic is really controversial, one should take this kind of issues sensitively.

But what I feel is that Art and artist must be free from this. We should not be stick to the fundamentals, but we have to be flexible, radical. What we have discussed while discussing movie The Reluctant Fundamentalist, that owner of multinational company and leader of terrorist group insist Changez to follow Fundamentals. We don’t have to follow word by word what is written in religious books. This is called the Reluctant Fundamentalist. Same thing can be apply here also. Don’t bind artists by such narrow concepts, because after allHUMAN BEING IS MORTAL, AND ART IS PERMANENT.

In movie, there is scene of Dharmendra speaking behind idol to Hema. The scene is rather innocent, but few people, as usual may have problem. Because it hurts religious sentiments. The same kind of scene is also in the movie GOPI- KISHSAN, where brother uses name of god to do his work. But now a days one has to be careful in doing such things.

JUST YESTERDAY PRIME MINISTER NARENDRA MODI, WELCOMED IN DUBLIN, IRELAND BY SANSKRIT SLOCK.  AT THAT TIME HE ALSO  CRITICIZE THAT IF IT WOULD HAPPEN IN INDIA THEN THERE WILL BE LOT OF CONTROVERSY.

2.

As well as why one should not do role of Tipu Sultan? Only because of religious differences??. Religion is construction. At the same time historical knowledge about him is also problematic. In interview it is said that he was portrayed in negative way, but he was a rather good figure. And whether he is good or bad, what is wrong in just playing role of him?  In Art there should be freedom.

Ancient sculpture is fine example of free, open minded society, in which we can see many nude sculptures.

Thus, rather than protesting , we have to support art and artist.

"Women Who Wear Leggings Are Immoral"- online discussion

Dilip Barad sir shared following article with all the students of Department of English, MKBU. so, this blog is written as a part of my reply to it.

to understand the whole point i have first put the original article and below it are my views regarding it.

Dilip

Dear Dilipsinh, "Kumudam has chosen to print sleazy photos of women without their consent... along with a poem that says men can't help but ogle women."  Kavitha says, "Kumudam, a Tamil magazine... thinks they can get away with moral policing and publicly shaming women." Sign Kavitha's petition to make the magazine apologise.

Kumudam! Apologise for your story insulting women and be responsible! kavitha muralidharan  Chennai, India Sign Kavitha's petition Women who wear leggings are immoral! That’s what Kumudam, a popular Tamil Magazine, thinks.  Kumudam has also printed several photos of women wearing leggings without their consent! If the women are wearing Kurtas over their leggings, the magazine has chosen to print sleazy photographs where the wind is blowing up their kurta.  This is sickening behaviour! Sign our petition and make Kumudam magazine apologise for this tasteless story.  The magazine has also printed a poem by an anonymous male author - who says men can’t help but ogle women, so it is the responsibility of women to dress ‘decently’.  Kumudam thinks it can get away with moral policing and publicly shaming women! We need to show them that if they publish such stories, they too will be held publicly accountable.  Kumudam’s editor and managing director have refused to comment on this story. They’re refusing to acknowledge that their magazine has done anything wrong.   Sadly, this is not the first time that Kumudam has demeaned women. They have run many such sensational stories wherethey degrade women. Kumudam has to be held accountable!  Sign my petition and make Kumudam apologise and promise to publish responsible stories.  I am a female journalist and Kumudam’s history of objectifying and judging women sickens me. If enough people sign this petition, we can show Kumudam that their readers and theiraudience will not tolerate such stories.  If we make Kumudam apologise, other media outlets will think twice before running ‘stories’ such as this. Sign my petition and make Kumudam apologise and promise to engage in responsible journalism.

Clothes and morality has nothing to do with each other. even in 21st century we think like this,  then it is not sign of healthy society. it looks like a Puritan mentality.

Cavemen & women were not wearing clothes at all. so what about their morality? were they all immoral???. morality & immorality are human creation. there is actually nothing like this.

Time is changing, we also have to change. be flexie &  change with time.

एच.एम.टी(घडी)

अम्बेसडर(गाडी)

नोकिया(मोबाइल)

इन सभी की गुणवक्ता में

कोई कमी नहीं थी फिर भी

बाजार से बाहर हो गए

कारण समय के साथ

बदलाव नहीं किया ।।

बदलाव प्रकृति का नियम है।।

Bajirao Mastani

Bajirao Mastani

This blog is written as a part of my online discussion at Department of English, MKBU.

Dilip Barad Sir, 

Ref: Interview of writer of Bajirao-Mastani Prakash Kapadia.

We can learn 

1) How long it takes in making of Historical films. 

2) How extensive Research is done by writer?

3) Converting History into Literature is difficult task.

4) When writer says that it is an attempt to see past through today's spectacles/goggles;  we remember the relevance of Eliot ' s concept of Tradition which involves Historical sense which involves past ness of past and it's presence, consciousness of past, timeless n temporal, contemporaenity etc. Not merely protector or the one who lives in Past but the one who sees past through present.

5) the controversy is bound to happen , and there is nothing wrong in  controversy. Literature, through "imagination", tries to answer questions left unanswered by History.

Share your views on the small interview attached. Try to connect it with the study of literature ans literary criticism / theory.

After reading this interview I realize how difficult  work it is to prepare a movie from history. Because history is something which generally remains most controversial issue. And it took 12 year to do research just to make a single movie, it shows writer’s dedication and determination. Prakash Kapadiya tells that since 2002 he was reading, watching other T.V. serial made on this  topic, meeting other historians etc. took a long time to write a script of the movie.

Yes, converting history into literature is difficult task, because  chief characteristic of literature is that it is imaginative, where as history is factual. So there is constant debate goes on this movie or book or TV serial is lying, telling a thing which is far away from reality. BUT WE’VE TO REMEMBER THAT THIS IS ART/ LITERATURE. LITERATURE IS ALWAYS IMAGINATIVE. IT NEVER SAYS WE ARE SPEAKING TRUTH. SO, WE CAN’T CHARGE IT FOR SPEAKING LIE.

They have poetic liberty  and they can change it. As a audience/ reader we have to grow.

Eliot says that pastness of past is not important but its present is more important. Means HOW PAST IS STILL ALIVE TODAY is more important. It is a habit of mind to  see anything by keeping in mind present   time.

I still haven’t seen the movie or I   I don’t know much about history of Bajirao , so it is difficult to say what is reality and what are changes made by movie maker.

Is God a needless hypothesis?

Dilip Barad Sir,

All students:

Read this writeup in context of:
1) A hypothesis which we constructed as a triangle where 'a' is literati re,  'b' is Religion and 'c' is Science. And while studying literature we go on testing our hypothesis of love - hate relations among each other. They neither can love each other, not can exist without each other.
2) Sem 1: Study of Paradise Lost by Milton. How Milton in the process and intentionally trying to justify ways of God to man, subverts his own hypothesis and speaks for human will power and freedom to choose, what ever may befall, including the wrath of God.

After reading in the given context, your task is to answer these questions:
1) Have we outgrown the psychological,  emotional and spiritual need of God?
2) How far can u agree with Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris who have cogently and eloquently argued that far from being a negation of moral codes and an ethical life, atheism as a form of consciousness raising is an affirmation of spiritual transcendence?
3) is it time we outgrew that 'Needless hypothesis'?

who killed more people ?

Religion.

Humanism in Paradise Lost.

let me first say something about Paradise Lost. while in the process of justifying God's ways to men, he actually subverts the hypothesis. His intention was to show that, this is how god operates. That if you break the laws of God, then you will be punished.

But Eve ate the fruit of knowledge. Adam realize that Eve has committed a huge mistake. then even he eats fruit because he thinks that he cannot live without Eve. Adam intentionally chooses Eve over God. he is ready to accept wrath of God, ready to be out of Garden of Eden.

this indirectly suggest to an individual  that how they have to be flexible, radical. HUMAN BEING IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN GOD.

in this world of havoc and terror, we have need to be like Adam. HUMAN BEING IS PRIME, NOT RELIGION.

★ RELIGION IS MADE FOR US, WE ARE NOT MADE FOR RELIGION.

I must say no one knows in true sense, what is religion? what are the fundamentals? and then even we go on killing people on the name of religion.

Religion was made to guide people. Fundamentals of all religion is love, pity, compassion, kindness, service to other, sympathy etc. But today Religion IS A WEAPON TO KILL PEOPLE.

★So, we have to shift from being religious to Spiritual. there is a basic difference between religion and spirituality. One can be spiritual without being religious.- this is the essence of the words of Pop Francis. if any non-believer criticize than people may not consider it worthy, but Pop Francis says this so it is very important. Here to prove him right i would like to ask question again who killed more people??-Religion. be it any, fact is this.

Reference of Nietzsche, is appropriate to think in progressive way, rather than being regressive. Nietzsche gave concept of Death of God and told that one has to develop his own sense of morality. He also gave concept of superman- who pave the new path- which will followed by other.

Need of god is to give psychological support, but one has to grow mature that one can live even without the concept of god. Atheism is now solution to every problem, because religion us rather problematic now a days. 

Ancient Versus Modern

This blog is written as a part of online discussion on Ancient versus Modern writer discussion debate.

Dilip Barad Sir,

Reference: Dryden's Essay.

Point of Debate: Ancient vs Modern.

Read attached writeup from Chitralekha magazine.

Isn't it true that such writings which narrowly focuses on "Who is better?" conditions our mind to think of "comparison"  always in terms of 'good and bad?. Isn't it true that such conditioning narrows our thinking? We are unable to restore connection between the past and the present when we see things as antithesis to each other.  We always think that one should be better than the Other. The idea of mutual coexistence ceases to exist in our mind and thus we fail to coexist with difference.

The writer would have read Dryden's Essay to understand an important point to keep in mind while we "compare".

"Discussion of Ancient and Modern shud not be for who is better, it shud be more filename tally about how "history" itself functioned and shud be read, thus it shud be about the relationship between past ans present, humanity and nature, and human understanding and knowledge."

What is your opinion about this two viewpoint?

It would be good if you support your argument with personal or general real life experiences. 

Sem 3 students should participate along with sem 1 in this online discussion.

Ancient and Modern

It is foolish idea to compare two distinct things and derive conclusion from them, that who is better. Comparison is okay but what is the need to prove one as superior and other inferior?

the same debate is also there in the Battle of the Books by Jonathan Swift, in which books discuss who is better Ancient or Modern?.

In that books Ancients are compared with Honeybees  and moderns are compared with Spiders. Ancients gathers so many material (honey) from here and there, and Moderns use them like Spiders. Eating the fruits of work done by Ancients without hard work. Moderns are lucky that they have raw material, model how to write. Ancients had done lot of works and moderns are just  copying or imitating them.

From Modern point of view , we can criticize Ancient that- As said by T.S.ELIOT in Tradition and Individual Talent, while discussing Historical sense-  that influence of past ruins the new talent. under the influence of great writer it  becomes difficult for Individual to write.

As well as we can defend modern that, they are not  copying Ancients but adding much more in that. New plot structures, experimentive narrative technique, Psychological portrayal of character, fusion of various arts into literature etc. are gift of Modern writers.

so to think of mutual existence of both is a better idea. it is our conditioning of mind since childhood to compare and contrast two things, whether possible or not.

Generalizing anything is major problem. there are plenty of Ancient writers. how can one say that they were good or bad- how can you generalize?? some of them may be artist with great literary abilities , some may not!!!!!! so judge individual by reading them, whether Ancient or Modern. similarly all Ancients are Great Classics and all Modern are rubbish, childish , it is not so.

so even John Dryden, in his essay Of Dramatic Poesy- through characters of Crites, Lesidius, Eugenius, Neander does not give any  conclusion, but gives voice to both.

both are interdependent, like two sides of a coin.

Discussion of Ancient and Modern should not be for who is better, it should be more filename tally about how "history" itself functioned and should be read, thus it should be about the relationship between past and present, humanity and nature, and human understanding and knowledge.↓↓

This is also fact that contemporary society fails to understand/ judge writers. they became great classic only after their death. for example Thomas Hardy- his novels were banned when he was alive. priests have burn his book ( Tess of D'Urbervilles-a pure woman) and drank ashes in coffee. and now he is classic writer.

Even during Elizabethan era Shakespeare was also writing for masses. he was popular not classic. Ben Jonson was holding important place  at that time, writing for Queen. ( Royal family). but today Ben Jonson is almost lost. so time will judge artist. contemporary audience may be wrong.

Even Chetan Bhagat is popular modern writer. but being popular, best seller don’t make him good writer. upcoming time will judge him. Today's Modern are Ancients of tomorrow.

So we have to think about the mutual coexistence of both.

Caste Politics

Dear Friends, this blog is my email group discussion task which i had done as a part of my study at Department of English.

All students,

Two articles are shared for online discussion .

1) Interview of Historian Irfan Habib 

2) Caste-ing Ashoka in Bihar.

History is similar to memory. As in case of individual Memory of past (memory is alwaya about past) helps in organizing present and future. Similarly,  History helps in organising present and future of National / Society.

History is recalled, rewritten ans reinterpreted, time and again. All rereading or appropriation of historical figures/facts gives us understanding about the power and it's relation with History. (HISTORY IS ALWAYS WRITTEN BY THE WINNERS. The defeated are always disparaged in history).

You are invited to share your views / opinions of  the two writeups.  What do you think about the views expressed? Do you agree or disagree with the views? Why? What's your logic?

Respected sir,

My views regarding caste politics and Ashoka is as follow.

 First question is why politicians are remembering Ashoka  now?? Simply because of  elections. They actually have nothing to do with people or with history. They are only in vote banks.  We have discussed in the introduction   of the Modernist Literature by A.C. Ward that how susceptible untutored mind   (youth) were used by Hitler in war.  This kind of people are easily emotionally fooled by people. And caste is a factor which is medium to fool emotionally people. So politicians connects caste of great once with people so they feel bondage towards them and give vote on the name of great politicians.

History and power are closely connected. In Michel Foucalut’s word Power generates meaning about those who lacks power. And all the examples discussed in this articles are fine examples of this. Concept of naming is not innocent. Power operates behind this. There is hidden political agenda behind naming or banning the things. Things are same, whatever name we give to them. From structuralist point of view meanings are conventional, relational, arbitrary and applied. Even if we change name it doesn’t make any difference to that place. But it always happens that those who comes into power they changes name of cities, roads or places which is not innocent.

It is also true that history is written by winners. IT IS IMPORTANT TO JUSTIFY YOUR SELF. And winners easily do that. All great heroes were murderers but they were able to justify them selves. So the same case is in the history, that one is always hero in his own story. And sometimes history is also written by paying money. So there is conflict and definitely it will go on…..   

Library report. Experience as a leader of Library at Department of English

Library Report

Library is essential in a process of giving

students access to knowledge. In present  times

they are needed more than ever before.

Most importantly, however, libraries are the

places where you can expect smart and clear

answers to even most difficult questions.

As Neil Gaiman says: “Google can bring you

back 100,000 answers, a library can bring

you back the right one.”

Department of English, MKBU is full of various facilities, one of them is our Library. Earlier it used to happen that all the students has to go to the university library for books. But since few years we are able to create our own library with large number of books, next to our classroom. And every year numbers of books are increasing. Thanks to Dr. Dilip Barad sir for that.

Department strongly believes in the idea that -To build up a library is to create

a life. It’s never just a random collection of books.

Here it is appropriate to quote the words of Harold Howe that

What an  institution thinks about its

library is a measure of what it

feels about education.

And Department is one such place where lot of planning and preparation is done for better & effective management of library. Every year with the admission of new students, we elect library committee and a Leader. And throughout the year these students run the library.

Every student takes maximum advantage of library. Not only students but also visiting faculties and Research scholar also regularly visit Library. We have so many novels, plays, CD - DVD of so many texts adapted into films, Audio - visual content & reading material of SCOPE to improve LANGUAGE, UGC-NET preparation books, books of theory and criticism as well as so many reference books. The list can be extended....!!

It is appropriate to quote here Woolf and Sheldon....

"I ransack public libraries, and

find them full of sunk

treasure."

–Virginia Woolf

"Libraries store the energy that

fuels the imagination. They

open up windows to the world

and inspire us to explore and

achieve, and contribute to

improving our quality of life."

–Sidney Sheldon

★

Working as a leader of Library committee is amazing experience, though it is a bit difficult task. There may be hardly a single day when i don't have opened library. we don't have fixed any time limit for library. Any time, any one, while working hour may come and say I want to issue books !!!! (Sometimes during recess while taking lunch also!!!!!)& we have never denied to anybody. These are the life skills i've acquire while studying in Department. Dedication and commitment i learn from here.

In the biginning, when i took charge it was a bit difficult task  for me to find books and give it to the students. because the book section is divided like.. Department books, University books, Outer library books, photocopies and so many other things. But slowly and steadily i mastered this and became familiar with each and every corner of it.

All the students, madam and and especially Dilip Sir are great supporters, without their cooperation effective management of library could not be possible.

And i hope that students of coming batches will carry this tradition & give their contribution in growth and development of Department and library.