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I write, Therefore I am!
P.K.Jayaraj
P.K.Jayaraj
“I think, therefore I am”, wrote Descartes, the great French philosopher. “I write, therefore I am”, wrote Samuel Johnson, the eminent eighteenth century English writer, altering Descartes' famous dictum. Every writer has his or her own reasons to write. The reasons and the topics for writing are as varied as the number of writers in the world. The great French short story writer Guy De Maupassant once claimed that he could write a story about anything. A companion took him up on that and challenged him to write a story about a piece of string. What could be more uninspiring than a piece of string as a subject? The result? “The Piece of String” by Maupassant, now a classic short story in world literature.
But we are not Maupassants or Chekovs. We have problems in finding subjects for writing. Whenever we take our pen to write, we are worried about language, grammar and many other things. Many student writers complain that this is their greatest problem. John Gardner, American novelist and poet, wrote; “Genius is as common as old shoes. Everybody has it” We all agree William Shakespeare and Emily Dickinson were geniuses. But what is that recognizable genius made of? Imagination, self-confidence, focus and practice. These factors enable one to reach further, go deeper and take greater risks in writing. Genius is hidden everywhere, it is in every person. It is in you. It is in me. Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare’s vision. Dickinson wrote Dickinson’s vision. Who will write yours, if you do not?
But we are not Maupassants or Chekovs. We have problems in finding subjects for writing. Whenever we take our pen to write, we are worried about language, grammar and many other things. Many student writers complain that this is their greatest problem. John Gardner, American novelist and poet, wrote; “Genius is as common as old shoes. Everybody has it” We all agree William Shakespeare and Emily Dickinson were geniuses. But what is that recognizable genius made of? Imagination, self-confidence, focus and practice. These factors enable one to reach further, go deeper and take greater risks in writing. Genius is hidden everywhere, it is in every person. It is in you. It is in me. Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare’s vision. Dickinson wrote Dickinson’s vision. Who will write yours, if you do not?
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**********************************************************************************************************Mind your P’s and Q’s
Dr.P.K.Jayaraj
Mind your P’s and Q’s is a very common expression in English which means, remember to be polite! Have you ever ordered at a restaurant in a foreign country only to get an ugly look from the waiter? While ordering in English, we have a standard of politeness. The most common way to order in English would be using: Can I/Could I – Could I have a coffee please? Can I have a coke please? Could I order please? May I (used in more formal situations) – May I attend the meeting next week? May I join you for lunch?
How to avoid being rude? Replace phrases that sound like commands, such as “Give me the newspaper”, with a request like “Can you pass me the newspaper?” Telling someone to “Move out of the way” is extremely rude and is likely going to get you a very negative reaction. The next time someone is in your way, saying “Excuse me” will get the result you want without causing offense! It can often be difficult to decline an invitation from a friend. Simply saying “No” would be considered impolite. The next time you have to refuse an invitation, avoid offense by saying, “I'm afraid I can't”
In English, when we don’t understand what someone says, the first reaction would be to say “Sorry?” (in a soft tone of voice). What will happen if you say, “I can’t hear you?”. Instead, always use: Sorry? – It’s polite and they will repeat, maybe even simplify what they just said. Pardon (me)? – is a more polite way of saying sorry. This is sometimes used in a more formal situation. You could say ‘Excuse me could you please repeat what you just said?’ Americans usually say ‘(I beg your) pardon?’ or ‘Pardon me?’.
English people are famous all over the world for their politeness. The British use “Please” and “Thank you” a million times. Indians also mind their P’s and Q’s, but differently. “Please” and “Thank you” are matter-of-fact for the polite Westerner, but an Indian may not feel the need to mention them. It does not mean that we are rude or impolite. Indians express their pleasure in a different manner: with a smile or a nod of the head.
How Dostoevsky got his book Published?
P.K.Jayaraj
At the age of 28, Fyodor Dostoevsky, sentenced to death for revolutionary activities, stood before a firing squad. The young writer kissed a cross that was passed around among the prisoners. The Tsar’s soldiers raised their guns. Then a rider rushed into the square and announced a pardon: the condemned men, including Dostoevsky, were to be sent to hard labour in Siberia instead. Very few of us will ever have a terrifying, unreal moment like Dostoevsky’s: convinced he was about to die, then spared at the last minute. When Dostoevsky returned from Siberia and wrote his great novels, his near-death echoed through his work.
Dostoevsky spent many years in a prison camp in Siberia, where he wasn’t allowed to read anything but the Bible and was given no writing materials-just hard labour. But he continued to write when he got out, despite the fact that Russian law prohibited a former prisoner to be published. When the Tsar read Dostoevsky’s House of the Dead-given to him by friends-he cried, lifted the ban, and allowed the work to be published.
P.K.Jayaraj
At the age of 28, Fyodor Dostoevsky, sentenced to death for revolutionary activities, stood before a firing squad. The young writer kissed a cross that was passed around among the prisoners. The Tsar’s soldiers raised their guns. Then a rider rushed into the square and announced a pardon: the condemned men, including Dostoevsky, were to be sent to hard labour in Siberia instead. Very few of us will ever have a terrifying, unreal moment like Dostoevsky’s: convinced he was about to die, then spared at the last minute. When Dostoevsky returned from Siberia and wrote his great novels, his near-death echoed through his work.
Dostoevsky spent many years in a prison camp in Siberia, where he wasn’t allowed to read anything but the Bible and was given no writing materials-just hard labour. But he continued to write when he got out, despite the fact that Russian law prohibited a former prisoner to be published. When the Tsar read Dostoevsky’s House of the Dead-given to him by friends-he cried, lifted the ban, and allowed the work to be published.
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There are no Rules!
P.K.Jayaraj
What are you waiting for? Write what you see, what you feel, what you yearn for and what you love. Don’t try to be perfect. Keep writing and keep trusting that each word will lead to the next and the next and the next. Only you can tell your story. Only your story and your writing will be infused with the uniqueness of your spirit, your outlook, your history and your heart.
There is no right way. There is no wrong way. There is only your way. Remember that writing experience need not be logical by any conventional standard. Write the first thing that comes into your mind, whatever it is. Always align your mind to the wisdom of your heart. Open to the images that pour through you. Listen to the voice of your heart, your soul, your Muse.
Allow your pen to keep flowing across the page and don’t stop for any reason. This is the first draft you write in this moment. This is the opportunity to release your Muse onto the page using the language of your heart which may not be perfectly executed language of your perfectly spelled, punctuated and grammatical brain. You can choose later to return to this draft and revise it, review it and edit it—using your mind to bring it into closer alignment with your vision.
P.K.Jayaraj
What are you waiting for? Write what you see, what you feel, what you yearn for and what you love. Don’t try to be perfect. Keep writing and keep trusting that each word will lead to the next and the next and the next. Only you can tell your story. Only your story and your writing will be infused with the uniqueness of your spirit, your outlook, your history and your heart.
There is no right way. There is no wrong way. There is only your way. Remember that writing experience need not be logical by any conventional standard. Write the first thing that comes into your mind, whatever it is. Always align your mind to the wisdom of your heart. Open to the images that pour through you. Listen to the voice of your heart, your soul, your Muse.
Allow your pen to keep flowing across the page and don’t stop for any reason. This is the first draft you write in this moment. This is the opportunity to release your Muse onto the page using the language of your heart which may not be perfectly executed language of your perfectly spelled, punctuated and grammatical brain. You can choose later to return to this draft and revise it, review it and edit it—using your mind to bring it into closer alignment with your vision.
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Poetry is a Special Way of Saying!
P.K.Jayaraj
P.K.Jayaraj
What is poetry? French poet Paul Valery said; “Poetry is separate language, a language within language”. A poet may be described as someone who writes in the language of poetry. Poetry is language spoken or written according to some pattern of recurrence that emphasises relationships between words on the basis of sound as well as meaning. A poet learns the language of poetry, works in it, is always being inspired by it. It is a special language, a special way of saying, both physical and metaphysical in its register, its content, frame of reference and applications. It is a spiritual language that lives in the world much like the language of music.
The reader of poetry is a kind of pilgrim setting out, setting forth. The reader is what Wallace Stevens calls; “the scholar of one candle”. Some people say that a poem is always an independent work of art and that readers can make full sense of it without having to use any source outside the poem itself. Others say that no text exists in a vacuum. However, the truth lies somewhere in between. Most poems are open to interpretation without the aid of historical context or knowledge about the author’s life. In fact, it is often best to approach a poem without the kind of preconceived ideas that can accompany this kind of information. Other poems, however, overtly political poems in particular, will benefit from some knowledge of the poet’s life and times. Poetry is one of the tools we can use to remain human. Poetry is food for the soul.
The reader of poetry is a kind of pilgrim setting out, setting forth. The reader is what Wallace Stevens calls; “the scholar of one candle”. Some people say that a poem is always an independent work of art and that readers can make full sense of it without having to use any source outside the poem itself. Others say that no text exists in a vacuum. However, the truth lies somewhere in between. Most poems are open to interpretation without the aid of historical context or knowledge about the author’s life. In fact, it is often best to approach a poem without the kind of preconceived ideas that can accompany this kind of information. Other poems, however, overtly political poems in particular, will benefit from some knowledge of the poet’s life and times. Poetry is one of the tools we can use to remain human. Poetry is food for the soul.
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SUGGESTIONS
NEW TRENDS IN EDUCATION
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Writing is Thinking and Feeling
P.K.Jayaraj
P.K.Jayaraj
During my stay in the United Sates in 2009, my mentor assigned me a task to tell a story to a group of second graders. I began the story. “Dear children, I am going to tell you the story of an Indian ascetic. One day the ascetic ate a car. Not all at once, but slowly over a year’s time. The students were sitting on the blue carpet in front of me. The students looked confused and started asking curious questions. “Why did he eat a car?’’ ‘How old was he?” “Did he eat everything, the engine, steering wheel, the radio?” “Did he drink the oil?” There was one bristling, brown-eyed student, who just looked at me and burst into tremendous laughter. “It was fantastic! A man had eaten a car! There is no logic in it. It is absurd”.
In a sense, this is how we should write. Not asking, “Why?” not delicately picking among candies, but letting our minds eat up everything and spewing it out on paper with great energy. Writing is everything, unconditional. There is no separation between writing, life, feelings and the mind. If you think it is credible enough to let people eat cars, you will be able to see that ants are elephants and men are women. You will be able to see the transparency of all forms so that all separations disappear.
Writing is thinking and feeling on paper or computer screen. Your mind holds more than you could imagine in terms of experiences, stories, ideas and images.
In a sense, this is how we should write. Not asking, “Why?” not delicately picking among candies, but letting our minds eat up everything and spewing it out on paper with great energy. Writing is everything, unconditional. There is no separation between writing, life, feelings and the mind. If you think it is credible enough to let people eat cars, you will be able to see that ants are elephants and men are women. You will be able to see the transparency of all forms so that all separations disappear.
Writing is thinking and feeling on paper or computer screen. Your mind holds more than you could imagine in terms of experiences, stories, ideas and images.
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What is poetry?
P.K.Jayaraj
P.K.Jayaraj
Poetry is the practice of creating artworks using language. Sculptors use marble or steel, musicians use sound, painters use paint and poets use language. Answering what “poetry is” is like answering what love is, or what life is or, more precisely, what art is? When asked what poetry is, poet Ben Jonson replied, “It is much easier to say what it is not. We all know what light is; but it is not easy to tell what it is”. The medium of poetry is language, our common property.
Edgar Allen Poe believed that poetry is “the rhythmical creation of beauty”; to Robert Frost, poetry is “a reaching out toward expression, an effort to find fulfillment”. Shelly wrote that “Poetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the best minds, the very image of life expressed in its eternal truth”. Poetry is more than a vehicle for expression; it is also a way of knowing and feeling. Poetry can be many things. It can be philosophical or emotional or sentimental. It can paint pictures, in a descriptive mode, or tell stories in a narrative mode. Poetry can be satirical or funny or political or just informative.
We live in an age in which language has become secondary to image. If we are to remain human, however, we need to hold on to language. Poetry is one of the tools we can use to remain human. Above all, do we not remember verses that touched our aching hearts or elevated our thoughts? Poetry is food for the soul.
Edgar Allen Poe believed that poetry is “the rhythmical creation of beauty”; to Robert Frost, poetry is “a reaching out toward expression, an effort to find fulfillment”. Shelly wrote that “Poetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the best minds, the very image of life expressed in its eternal truth”. Poetry is more than a vehicle for expression; it is also a way of knowing and feeling. Poetry can be many things. It can be philosophical or emotional or sentimental. It can paint pictures, in a descriptive mode, or tell stories in a narrative mode. Poetry can be satirical or funny or political or just informative.
We live in an age in which language has become secondary to image. If we are to remain human, however, we need to hold on to language. Poetry is one of the tools we can use to remain human. Above all, do we not remember verses that touched our aching hearts or elevated our thoughts? Poetry is food for the soul.
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6 Great Opening Sentences
P.K.Jayaraj
P.K.Jayaraj
Never judge a book by its cover, but what about its first line? Probably the hardest part about writing a book is how to start a story in the first place. Here are six great opening sentences of famous books I have read.
1. A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of communism. (Communist Manifesto)
2. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. (Pride and Prejudice)
3. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. (A Tale of Two Cities).
4. It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. (Nineteen Eighty Four)
5. Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. (One Hundred Years of Solitude).
6. As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into an enormous insect. (The Metamorphosis)
Look at the opening sentences. Opening sentences are not to be written lightly.
1. A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of communism. (Communist Manifesto)
2. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. (Pride and Prejudice)
3. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. (A Tale of Two Cities).
4. It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. (Nineteen Eighty Four)
5. Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. (One Hundred Years of Solitude).
6. As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into an enormous insect. (The Metamorphosis)
Look at the opening sentences. Opening sentences are not to be written lightly.
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Write with Passion and Simplicity
P.K.Jayaraj
P.K.Jayaraj
Great writing is all about grabbing the reader’s attention. Which means your words, characters, dialogue and construction must have empathy. Tie them into your own experiences. This does not mean dull-and-boring, long-winded sentences about yourself. It means insightful originality, directness and raw energy your readers can identify with. Let your writing come from your heart and write it straight. The great masters of fiction captured the world’s imagination with characters that will live forever. Great writers know that simplicity is the bedrock of their craft.
The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway, was a simple story about a fisherman and a fish, but it hooked millions of readers. The secret was in the simplicity of the dialogue and narration. Write with passion, music and simplicity – that is the real art of creative writing.
Pick up your pen. Describe what you see, what you feel, what you yearn for and what you love. Don’t try to be perfect. Keep writing and keep trusting that each word will lead to the next and the next and the next. Only you can tell your story. Only your story and your book will be infused with the uniqueness of your spirit, your outlook, your history and your heart.
On a final note, don’t let the word art or creativity fool you. Got a good idea? Write it down the way you would want to receive it. You don’t want to be Leo Tolstoy or Gabriel Garcia Marquez to do that.
The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway, was a simple story about a fisherman and a fish, but it hooked millions of readers. The secret was in the simplicity of the dialogue and narration. Write with passion, music and simplicity – that is the real art of creative writing.
Pick up your pen. Describe what you see, what you feel, what you yearn for and what you love. Don’t try to be perfect. Keep writing and keep trusting that each word will lead to the next and the next and the next. Only you can tell your story. Only your story and your book will be infused with the uniqueness of your spirit, your outlook, your history and your heart.
On a final note, don’t let the word art or creativity fool you. Got a good idea? Write it down the way you would want to receive it. You don’t want to be Leo Tolstoy or Gabriel Garcia Marquez to do that.
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Hail to thee Verbs
P.K.Jayaraj
Julius Caesar got them. Saint Mathew got them. Shakespeare’s Prince of Denmark got them. Saul Bellow got them. Got what? Verbs. Vital, vibrant, voluptuousness and sometimes vexing verbs.
Julius Caesar, after his short war with Pharnaces II of Pontus, proclaimed “vendi, vidi, vici”, “I came, I saw, I conquered”.
Saint Mathew, when he got the chance to record his gospel of the New Testament, reminded us “And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat up on that house; and it fell not”.
Shakespeare’s Prince of Denmark did a lot more than contemplate what it meant “to be or not to be”. Shakespeare relied on a full palette of verbs: “Is it nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,” he asks, “Or to take arms against the sea of troubles, and, by opposing, end them”?
Saul Bellow, in his novella Seize the Day, wrote “I labor, I spend, I strive, I design, I love, I cling, I uphold, I give away, I envy, I long, I scorn, I die, I hide, I want”.
Verbs run deep in the DNA of our every sentence. Without verbs, nothing happens.
P.K.Jayaraj
Julius Caesar got them. Saint Mathew got them. Shakespeare’s Prince of Denmark got them. Saul Bellow got them. Got what? Verbs. Vital, vibrant, voluptuousness and sometimes vexing verbs.
Julius Caesar, after his short war with Pharnaces II of Pontus, proclaimed “vendi, vidi, vici”, “I came, I saw, I conquered”.
Saint Mathew, when he got the chance to record his gospel of the New Testament, reminded us “And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat up on that house; and it fell not”.
Shakespeare’s Prince of Denmark did a lot more than contemplate what it meant “to be or not to be”. Shakespeare relied on a full palette of verbs: “Is it nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,” he asks, “Or to take arms against the sea of troubles, and, by opposing, end them”?
Saul Bellow, in his novella Seize the Day, wrote “I labor, I spend, I strive, I design, I love, I cling, I uphold, I give away, I envy, I long, I scorn, I die, I hide, I want”.
Verbs run deep in the DNA of our every sentence. Without verbs, nothing happens.
Are we Mallus Chutnefying Malayalam?
Dr.P.K.Jayaraj
We Malayalis or Mallus are chutnefying Malayalam. Of late Malayalam has assimilated a large number of words deriving from English and Malayalam. English+ Malayalam hybrid words abound in our day to day communication. The British puritanism ground to halt with the publishing and the ensuing phenomenal success of Arundathi Roy’s novel The God of Small Things, that ends with the Malayalam word Naley. Before her, Salman Rushdie had added the flavour of Indian spices to the English languages.
Rushdie’s use of the expression “chutnification” epitomizes his use of language in the novel Midnight’s Children. “Chutney” is an Indian dish, which is a side dish and tangy, adding flavour to the main course of any meal. We Mallus have hybridized Malayalam by using compounding words like ‘fit aayi’, to ‘tight aanu’ and ‘sight adichu’. Available English terms may not be eligible enough to present the actual Malayalam meaning.
Is it OK to corrupt English? Mark Tully says “If Americans can speak American English, why can’t Indians speak Indian English?” We are exactly doing that; we are Indianising, hybridising and chutnifying English.
Dr.P.K.Jayaraj
We Malayalis or Mallus are chutnefying Malayalam. Of late Malayalam has assimilated a large number of words deriving from English and Malayalam. English+ Malayalam hybrid words abound in our day to day communication. The British puritanism ground to halt with the publishing and the ensuing phenomenal success of Arundathi Roy’s novel The God of Small Things, that ends with the Malayalam word Naley. Before her, Salman Rushdie had added the flavour of Indian spices to the English languages.
Rushdie’s use of the expression “chutnification” epitomizes his use of language in the novel Midnight’s Children. “Chutney” is an Indian dish, which is a side dish and tangy, adding flavour to the main course of any meal. We Mallus have hybridized Malayalam by using compounding words like ‘fit aayi’, to ‘tight aanu’ and ‘sight adichu’. Available English terms may not be eligible enough to present the actual Malayalam meaning.
Is it OK to corrupt English? Mark Tully says “If Americans can speak American English, why can’t Indians speak Indian English?” We are exactly doing that; we are Indianising, hybridising and chutnifying English.
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“Isn’t it” phobia in spoken English
I think you know those little questions we sometimes tag onto the ends of statements...don't you? If someone says “Are you a teacher, isn’t it?, what will be your response. Will you say, “Yes, it is”. I think you won’t. I have come across a number of such grammatically incorrect "isn't its" in my life. I have heard teachers using plenty of “isn't its” in as part of their teacher talk.
There is a tendency in Indian English to use ‘isn’t it’ as a universal question tag regardless of person, tense or the auxiliary verb of the main clause. Speakers tend to use ‘isn’t it’ for anything and everything making it a faulty universal question tag. The following are striking erroneous examples. He is very weak, isn’t it? I have to attend to today’s work at any cost, isn’t it? She’ll come here today, isn’t it? The correct question tags in the above sentences are: He is very weak, isn’t he? I have to attend to today’s work at any cost, haven’t I? She’ll come here today, won’t she? Question Tags follow a specific grammar pattern. They usually depend on the verb or auxiliary verb in a sentence. Question tags change depending on the subject of the sentence: "It is... isn't it?"; "You are... aren't you?"; "They are... aren't they?"; etc. However, many Keralites tend to use “isn’t it?” no matter what the subject and the auxiliary verb are. Hail to thee ‘isn’t it?’
I think you know those little questions we sometimes tag onto the ends of statements...don't you? If someone says “Are you a teacher, isn’t it?, what will be your response. Will you say, “Yes, it is”. I think you won’t. I have come across a number of such grammatically incorrect "isn't its" in my life. I have heard teachers using plenty of “isn't its” in as part of their teacher talk.
There is a tendency in Indian English to use ‘isn’t it’ as a universal question tag regardless of person, tense or the auxiliary verb of the main clause. Speakers tend to use ‘isn’t it’ for anything and everything making it a faulty universal question tag. The following are striking erroneous examples. He is very weak, isn’t it? I have to attend to today’s work at any cost, isn’t it? She’ll come here today, isn’t it? The correct question tags in the above sentences are: He is very weak, isn’t he? I have to attend to today’s work at any cost, haven’t I? She’ll come here today, won’t she? Question Tags follow a specific grammar pattern. They usually depend on the verb or auxiliary verb in a sentence. Question tags change depending on the subject of the sentence: "It is... isn't it?"; "You are... aren't you?"; "They are... aren't they?"; etc. However, many Keralites tend to use “isn’t it?” no matter what the subject and the auxiliary verb are. Hail to thee ‘isn’t it?’
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