Stop phubbing * , read and digest ( ckr 19/06/2019 )
Dear friends, Today is readers' day. June 19.The day when P N Panicker , the founder of Kerla Grandhashaala Sangham( An organisation of public libraries in Kerala ) passed away is observed as reading day in Kerala. Various programmes underlining the importance of reading is being observed in campuses and public spaces all over Kerala today.
Why do we give so much importance to reading ?
Because reading maketh a human being perfect as Francis Bacon,the famous essayist once pointed out.
"Reading maketh a full man,conference a ready man and writing an exact man."
This is the exact statement of Bacon on reading.
He gives importance to reading.After reading ,things should be digested and the reader should form an opinion of her / his own on the subject and should present it in a discussion and get it acknowledged by other readers .
After reading and getting his view point acknowledged by the contemporary readers ,she /he should write on the topic as writing will make you an exact human being according to Francis Bacon.
Friends, Reading can change you a lot.Reading keeps you alive.Reading can keep you away from bad thoughts.bad habits. away from drugs,away from alcohol. Reading takes you away from gloominess.Away from despair and depression. From boredom.INTO HAPPINESS .INTO WISDOM.INTO ENLIGHTENMENT.INTO THE BLISS OF SOLITUDE.
What do you do when you feel bored AFTER a class ? Well, during my college days I used to spend a lot of time in the libraries. Especially when I feel disinterested in attending a particular class( Now most of us get ourselves glued to a T V screen and go on changing the channels ! When we feel bored again, we get engaged on the phone.Phubbing is the result.You are interested only on the messages and are trying to send other people around you away-that is phubbing. Stop phubbing please.). And in a library what would I read ? I would read the day's news papers.In Malayalam first ,the Indian express next ( and how many of you read these news papers now ..? ) The Hindu next.The Competition Success Review, the Out look.The Readers' Digest.The Mathrubhumi.The Kalalakaumudi and so on in Malayalam. Sahithya Varaphalam was my favourite article I used to read and digest.It was a feature written by the then well known critic in Malayalam , M Krishnan Nair in Kalakaumudi every week highlighting and criticising the stories and books published at that time. It had been a yardstick for new readers like me to evaluate literature . It was Krishnan Nair who led me to great books and writers like Dostoevsky. It was "sahithya varaphalam" a weekly analysis of literature " and the library at Nirmalagiri College ,my Alma mater , which took me to the arena of world literature and the possibilities of English language.
Let me come back to the topic .Yes.In a library you can read many books and useful periodicals like the Employment News.Periodicals , magazines.A good library will always provide you chances for better reading.You read about different perspectives possible. You agree with them silently. You disagree with some of them furiously. You feel that you should at least make the author know that you have a different idea about it, so you decide to write about the topic. Soon you may feel that you don't have much arsenal to prove your point.You are convinced that you should read more about it .So you go to the librarian and request for a membership,peruse certain books on the topic and then you start writing.In a library I -the teacher of English- have grown up, in the libraries many a scholars have grown up.Many thinkers. Many politicians. Many social activists. Ask our favourite poet Sugathakumari .Ask our beloved writer M T Vasudevan Nair .Ask Dr.Jineshkumar Eramam. Ask Anupriya, the young poet from Payyannur , ask Dr Bhaskaran Nair .They would say they groomed themselves out of reading. Mohandas once happened to read the book of essays "Unto this Last" by Ruskin Bond. The rest is history.Mahatma Gandhi was born. If you read the life stories of great people , you can see how a book change their lives.They have groomed themselves out of libraries.Let me pay tribute to Mr. P N Panicker and like minded leaders of the organisation who dedicated all their lives to ensure that there is a library in every village in Kerala.
Dear friends, Reading makes you happy.You get news about employment opportunities .Reading entertains you. When the bishop in the Les Miserables stuns the policeman with the reply that he had given the candles to the man as he was his bother you feel stunned by the possibilities of human virtues. Reading makes you inspired. Reading gives you dreams.As our former president APJ KALAM rightly stated,Dreams get transformed to thoughts, thoughts get transformed into actions.That why Malayalam poet Kunhunni once said "vaychail valarum ,vayichillel valayum".If you read, you will be able to grow.If you don't read ,you will be ruined.
Dear friends,Reading can change you.It is a fact.Reading can help in changing your society. India, our motherland needs you. There are epidemics. There are health issues. There is poverty and unemployment in many places. Reading may help you in finding solutions.There is scarcity of Water in many places .There are environmental issues affecting the growth of our Nation .The future of our world is threatened by climate change. There is a need for immediate action to stop climate change. Children are out in the street in some countries like UK demanding stringent measures to stop climate change.Give our future back is their slogan .How can we help them. ? Pope Francis has read about this issue seriously and he has declared climate emergency in the world.But how many of us take this seriously ? Are we reading these issues creatively ? or are we just skimming and skipping when it comes to grave issues facing the world ? When I wrote a post in F B and whatsapp on the marriage function of a relative,hundreds of my friends liked the post.When I posted the statement by Papa on climate emergency,do you know what happened ? Only one reader cared to comment on it.This is the grave situation we face . We all read, but don't read positively.but are we reading positively ?
We all read, we all change or would like to change.But to what direction you would change ? Even terrorists read a lot.There are stories of criminals who devise new methods after reading about them or watching films. So reading is not enough. What you digest after reading is what counts .what we digest is really important. The schools and our teachers play a great role in helping us to select the books we should read and digest the ideas so as to develop a positive mindset.This is where discussions after a reading a book becomes a serious activity.This is where the ideas you digested after reading get scrutinized, get evaluated, get acknowledged by your friends , teachers and other readers who always focus on the creative and positive aspect of reading.Discussions after reading is a must. Programmes like reviewing a book become meaningful in this aspect.The Readers' Forum in Alakode is conducting many a session this week for reviews and discussions on different books. This is a great work.Congrats to all organisations like them who are engaged in the cultural transition of Kerala.
let me thank Mr.sreekumar who gave me chance to speak to you.,the students of GHSS MATHIL,the future generation of Kannur. Let me congratulate the teachers , the schools , the librarians of this land who make it a point that reading goes on ,that reading is creative through programmes like this.Let me wish these programmes all the best.
"reading maketh a full man,conference a ready man and writing an exact man."
I would suggest a slight change in the first part.Reading maketh nice citizens.Citizens who do not ask for what the country can do for them but who will do what they can do for the country.
-Thank you.
( CKR )
phubbing : The practice of ignoring one's companion or companions in order to pay attention to one's phone or other mobile device.
************************************************
To the students
PLEASE SEND A COPY OF THE SCRIPT OF A SPEECH in English YOU MADE / WOULD LIKE TO MAKE ON READERS' DAY to this blog at seakeyare@gmail.com.The best three SPEECHES will be recognised and published here.( AROUND150 WORDS)/last date 23/06/2019 ; 4 PM
Result of this competition
https://ckrenglishclass.blogspot.com/2019/06/student-essays-on-reading.html
Dear friends, Today is readers' day. June 19.The day when P N Panicker , the founder of Kerla Grandhashaala Sangham( An organisation of public libraries in Kerala ) passed away is observed as reading day in Kerala. Various programmes underlining the importance of reading is being observed in campuses and public spaces all over Kerala today.
Why do we give so much importance to reading ?
Because reading maketh a human being perfect as Francis Bacon,the famous essayist once pointed out.
"Reading maketh a full man,conference a ready man and writing an exact man."
This is the exact statement of Bacon on reading.
He gives importance to reading.After reading ,things should be digested and the reader should form an opinion of her / his own on the subject and should present it in a discussion and get it acknowledged by other readers .
After reading and getting his view point acknowledged by the contemporary readers ,she /he should write on the topic as writing will make you an exact human being according to Francis Bacon.
Friends, Reading can change you a lot.Reading keeps you alive.Reading can keep you away from bad thoughts.bad habits. away from drugs,away from alcohol. Reading takes you away from gloominess.Away from despair and depression. From boredom.INTO HAPPINESS .INTO WISDOM.INTO ENLIGHTENMENT.INTO THE BLISS OF SOLITUDE.
What do you do when you feel bored AFTER a class ? Well, during my college days I used to spend a lot of time in the libraries. Especially when I feel disinterested in attending a particular class( Now most of us get ourselves glued to a T V screen and go on changing the channels ! When we feel bored again, we get engaged on the phone.Phubbing is the result.You are interested only on the messages and are trying to send other people around you away-that is phubbing. Stop phubbing please.). And in a library what would I read ? I would read the day's news papers.In Malayalam first ,the Indian express next ( and how many of you read these news papers now ..? ) The Hindu next.The Competition Success Review, the Out look.The Readers' Digest.The Mathrubhumi.The Kalalakaumudi and so on in Malayalam. Sahithya Varaphalam was my favourite article I used to read and digest.It was a feature written by the then well known critic in Malayalam , M Krishnan Nair in Kalakaumudi every week highlighting and criticising the stories and books published at that time. It had been a yardstick for new readers like me to evaluate literature . It was Krishnan Nair who led me to great books and writers like Dostoevsky. It was "sahithya varaphalam" a weekly analysis of literature " and the library at Nirmalagiri College ,my Alma mater , which took me to the arena of world literature and the possibilities of English language.
Let me come back to the topic .Yes.In a library you can read many books and useful periodicals like the Employment News.Periodicals , magazines.A good library will always provide you chances for better reading.You read about different perspectives possible. You agree with them silently. You disagree with some of them furiously. You feel that you should at least make the author know that you have a different idea about it, so you decide to write about the topic. Soon you may feel that you don't have much arsenal to prove your point.You are convinced that you should read more about it .So you go to the librarian and request for a membership,peruse certain books on the topic and then you start writing.In a library I -the teacher of English- have grown up, in the libraries many a scholars have grown up.Many thinkers. Many politicians. Many social activists. Ask our favourite poet Sugathakumari .Ask our beloved writer M T Vasudevan Nair .Ask Dr.Jineshkumar Eramam. Ask Anupriya, the young poet from Payyannur , ask Dr Bhaskaran Nair .They would say they groomed themselves out of reading. Mohandas once happened to read the book of essays "Unto this Last" by Ruskin Bond. The rest is history.Mahatma Gandhi was born. If you read the life stories of great people , you can see how a book change their lives.They have groomed themselves out of libraries.Let me pay tribute to Mr. P N Panicker and like minded leaders of the organisation who dedicated all their lives to ensure that there is a library in every village in Kerala.
Dear friends, Reading makes you happy.You get news about employment opportunities .Reading entertains you. When the bishop in the Les Miserables stuns the policeman with the reply that he had given the candles to the man as he was his bother you feel stunned by the possibilities of human virtues. Reading makes you inspired. Reading gives you dreams.As our former president APJ KALAM rightly stated,Dreams get transformed to thoughts, thoughts get transformed into actions.That why Malayalam poet Kunhunni once said "vaychail valarum ,vayichillel valayum".If you read, you will be able to grow.If you don't read ,you will be ruined.
Dear friends,Reading can change you.It is a fact.Reading can help in changing your society. India, our motherland needs you. There are epidemics. There are health issues. There is poverty and unemployment in many places. Reading may help you in finding solutions.There is scarcity of Water in many places .There are environmental issues affecting the growth of our Nation .The future of our world is threatened by climate change. There is a need for immediate action to stop climate change. Children are out in the street in some countries like UK demanding stringent measures to stop climate change.Give our future back is their slogan .How can we help them. ? Pope Francis has read about this issue seriously and he has declared climate emergency in the world.But how many of us take this seriously ? Are we reading these issues creatively ? or are we just skimming and skipping when it comes to grave issues facing the world ? When I wrote a post in F B and whatsapp on the marriage function of a relative,hundreds of my friends liked the post.When I posted the statement by Papa on climate emergency,do you know what happened ? Only one reader cared to comment on it.This is the grave situation we face . We all read, but don't read positively.but are we reading positively ?
We all read, we all change or would like to change.But to what direction you would change ? Even terrorists read a lot.There are stories of criminals who devise new methods after reading about them or watching films. So reading is not enough. What you digest after reading is what counts .what we digest is really important. The schools and our teachers play a great role in helping us to select the books we should read and digest the ideas so as to develop a positive mindset.This is where discussions after a reading a book becomes a serious activity.This is where the ideas you digested after reading get scrutinized, get evaluated, get acknowledged by your friends , teachers and other readers who always focus on the creative and positive aspect of reading.Discussions after reading is a must. Programmes like reviewing a book become meaningful in this aspect.The Readers' Forum in Alakode is conducting many a session this week for reviews and discussions on different books. This is a great work.Congrats to all organisations like them who are engaged in the cultural transition of Kerala.
let me thank Mr.sreekumar who gave me chance to speak to you.,the students of GHSS MATHIL,the future generation of Kannur. Let me congratulate the teachers , the schools , the librarians of this land who make it a point that reading goes on ,that reading is creative through programmes like this.Let me wish these programmes all the best.
"reading maketh a full man,conference a ready man and writing an exact man."
I would suggest a slight change in the first part.Reading maketh nice citizens.Citizens who do not ask for what the country can do for them but who will do what they can do for the country.
-Thank you.
( CKR )
phubbing : The practice of ignoring one's companion or companions in order to pay attention to one's phone or other mobile device.
"phubbing is just one symptom of our increasing reliance on mobile phones and the Internet"
************************************************
To the students
PLEASE SEND A COPY OF THE SCRIPT OF A SPEECH in English YOU MADE / WOULD LIKE TO MAKE ON READERS' DAY to this blog at seakeyare@gmail.com.The best three SPEECHES will be recognised and published here.( AROUND150 WORDS)/last date 23/06/2019 ; 4 PM
Result of this competition
https://ckrenglishclass.blogspot.com/2019/06/student-essays-on-reading.html
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