HeadLines 13.01.2021#507, Wednesday

 HeadLines 13.01.2021#507, Wednesday

1. Covid : Nearly 4.34 lakh Covishield vaccines to reach Kerala on Wed.

-No option to select between vaccines.

2.Chennithala to lead Kerala Yatra from Feb 1.

3.Kudumbashree to enter banking sector; targets small finance banking licence.

4. SC suspends implementation of three farm laws.

5. High alert maintained at LAC: Army Chief Naravane.

6. Jaishankar slams Pakistan, takes a dig at China in anti-terror action plan.

7.Tesla comes to India, sets up office in Bengaluru.

8. Uganda bans social media ahead of presidential election.

9. Crashed Indonesian plane's 'black box' recovered.

Headlines Vocab

1. take a dig

To make a mocking, sarcastic, or insulting remark, gibe, or criticism at someone's or something's expense. 

"I'm really not trying to take a dig at you. I'm just trying to give you some constructive feedback."

Extracted from following news portals :-

Manorama Matrubhoomi TNIE BBC Reuters the Hindu The Guardian

https://www.facebook.com/109209820702164/posts/222762542680224/

Headlines Vocab by Lalji Daniel

Consolidated and organised by Nishad Abdulkareem

Use of Technology in English Language Teaching and learning.

 Use of Technology in English Language Teaching and learning.

- Dr.CHANDRAN, ELTTF(www.riemates .org )

( റീമേററ്സിന്റെ ഈ വർഷത്തെ ഇംഗ്ലീഷ് ഭാഷാ കോഴ്സുകൾ തുടങ്ങുന്നു.......DETAILS GIVEN BELOW)

With the spread and development of English around the world, it is used as a second language in a country like India and for some people the first language.  It enjoys a high prestige in the country.  At present the role and status of English in India is higher than ever as evidenced by its position as a key subject of medium of instruction, curriculum.  As the number of English learners is increasing, different teaching methods have been implemented to test the effectiveness of the teaching process.  Use of authentic materials in the form of films, radio, TV has been there for a long time.

Technology is one of the most significant drivers of the social and linguistic change. English learner in  India, implements different teaching methods  to test the effectiveness of the teaching process.  One method involves multimedia in ElT in order to create English contexts.  It is proved that multimedia technology plays a positive role in promoting activities and initiatives of student and teaching effect in English class. Multimedia technology helps to cultivate students’ interest in study and it promotes students communication capacity. The PPT course ware activate students thinking the visual and vivid courseware help them to transform English learning into capacity building.

Technology helps to widen students’ knowledge to gain an insightful understanding on western culture.   The teaching effect will definitely be improved by his.  The utilization of multimedia sound lab materializes the individualized and co- operative teaching.  It also helps to improve interaction between teachers and students.  Multimedia teaching creates a context for language teaching.  This method makes the class lively and interesting as swell as optimizing the organization of the class. It also helps to provide flexibility to course content.  In future the multimedia English teaching will be further developed.   In short we can conclude that the technology based learning will go a long way in making the contents transacted in the classrooms easily.

Happy Learning.

( SUNDAY TIPS Lesson: 102 -FROM RIEMATES)

ANNOUNCEMENTS

റീമേററ്സിന്റെ ഈ വർഷത്തെ ഇംഗ്ലീഷ് ഭാഷാ കോഴ്സുകൾ തുടങ്ങുന്നു

അധ്യാപകർക്ക് ഇംഗ്ലീഷ് ഭാഷ ലളിതമാക്കാൻ റീമേറ്റ്സ്  റീജിയണൽ ഇൻസ്റ്റിറ്റ്യൂട്ട് ബാംഗളൂരുമായി സഹകരിച്ചു  നടത്തുന്ന  ഡിപ്ലോമ  ഇൻ  ഇംഗ്ലീഷ് കമ്യൂണിക്കേഷൻ  കോഴ്സിന് 2021വർഷത്തെ  അപേക്ഷ ക്ഷണിച്ചു.  ഡിപ്ലോമ കോഴ്സിന് ചേരുന്നവർക്കു സൗജന്യമായി വിദഗ്ധരുടെ ക്ലാസ്സുകളും മൊഡ്യൂൾ ലളിതമാക്കിക്കൊണ്ടുള്ള പഠനങ്ങളും തലശ്ശേരി ബ്രണ്ണൻ കോളേജ് ഓഫ് ടീച്ചർ എഡ്യൂക്കേഷനിൽ എല്ലാ ഞായറാഴ്ച്ചകളിലും    നടത്തിവരുന്നു ,

താത്പര്യമുള്ളവർ  www.riemates .org  എന്ന website വഴിയും ഞായറാഴ്ചകളിൽ കോളേജിൽ വന്നും രജിസ്റ്റർ ചെയ്യാം.കൂടുതൽ വിവരങ്ങൾക്ക് 9446675440 ,9400658402 എന്ന നമ്പറുകളിൽ  ബന്ധപ്പെടാം.

HEADLINES TODAY ,NEWS ANALYSIS AND A TOPIC FOR DEBATE

 HEADLINES TODAY  ,NEWS ANALYSIS AND A TOPIC FOR DEBATE

HeadLines 10.01.2021#504, Sunday- CLICK HERE FOR AN AUDIO BY our newsreader

WEEKLY ANALYSIS BY ARUN LAKSHMANAN

DEBATE TOPIC :CLICK HERE

PARTICIPANT - 1 :ANJALI 

 CLICK HERE AND ENTER OUR NEWSROOM

1. Kerala reports 5,528 fresh Covid-19 cases, 5,424 recoveries; test positivity rate at 9.03 percent.

- KM Shaji MLA suffers heart attack; tests COVID-19 positive.

-First phase of vaccination to start on Jan. 16.

-Death of Bhopal volunteer not due to vaccine, says Bharat BioTech.

2. CM Pinarayi opens Vyttila , Kundannoor flyovers to the public.

3. VS to step down as chief of Admin Reforms body.

4. Theaters in Kerala won’t reopen soon, declares FEUOK .

5. Complaint of woman sexually abusing son was fake, alleges family of accused.

6. Complaint filed against man for waving India flag in US Capitol protest.

7. Madhya Pradesh anti-conversion ordinance notified, comes into effect.

8. Maharashtra: Major fire at Bhandara district hospital, several babies die.

9. Indonesian plane with 62 aboard missing; fishermen spot possible debris .

10. Deadly snowstorms cause chaos across Spain.

11. Twitter permanently suspends Trump’s account.

12. Kim Jong-un calls US 'biggest enemy' and says nuclear submarine plans 'complete'.

Headlines Vocab

1. FEUOK Film Exhibitors United Organisation of Kerala

2. debris/ˈdebriː/ഡെബ്രീ അവശിഷ്‌ടങ്ങള്‍

​ pieces of wood, metal, building materials, etc. that are left after something has been destroyed

"Emergency teams are still clearing the debris from the plane crash."

3. submarine /ˌsʌbməˈriːn/സബ്‌മെറീൻഅന്തര്‍വാഹിനി

​a ship that can travel underwater

Extracted from following SPEP

Headlines Vocab by Lalji Daniel;Consolidated and organised by Nishad Abdulkareem

*********************************************************************

CLICK HERE FOR A WRITE UP ON USE OF TECHNOLOGY IN TEACHING

അധ്യാപകർക്ക് ഇംഗ്ലീഷ് ഭാഷ ലളിതമാക്കാൻ റീമേറ്റ്സ്  റീജിയണൽ ഇൻസ്റ്റിറ്റ്യൂട്ട് ബാംഗളൂരുമായി സഹകരിച്ചു  നടത്തുന്ന  ഡിപ്ലോമ  ഇൻ  ഇംഗ്ലീഷ് കമ്യൂണിക്കേഷൻ  കോഴ്സിന് 2021വർഷത്തെ  അപേക്ഷ ക്ഷണിച്ചു.  CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS

women to stay indoors for their safety

 Night and day

To expect women to stay indoors for their safety is to deny them their freedoms, rights

Unnao. Hathras. And now Badaun. The dirge continues as news of another horrific alleged rape and murder emerged from Uttar Pradesh on Sunday. A 50-year-old anganwadi worker, who visited a temple, was found brutally battered outside her home at a village in Badaun district. After she succumbed to the injuries, a depressingly similar pattern came to light: the police had dithered with both the post mortem and in registering an FIR. The culprits, a priest and his two associates, were arrested by Thursday night, with the State government saying that stern action would be taken. What came as a shocker, however, was the reaction of a senior member of the National Commission for Women who visited the family. Chandramukhi Devi was quoted as saying, “I tell women again and again that they should never go out at odd hours under anyone’s influence… I think if she had not gone out in the evening or was accompanied by any child of the family perhaps this incident could have been avoided.” Such remarks worsen the situation for women who have to battle against skewed societal gender conditioning. When insensitive utterances emanate from a national commission actually meant to uphold women’s rights, it reeks of a primitive mindset wherein lawlessness is overlooked and responsibility pinned, perversely, on the woman for ensuring her own well-being.

All the hard work put in by women in all spheres including science and technology comes undone by such crude statements. The equal rights movement means nothing if women are stopped from going out whenever they want to or need to, day or night. But it is also imperative that with society steeped in gender prejudices, the government, police and family must step up to provide a safe environment. In 2019, the NCRB data show 88 rape cases were recorded every day in India with U.P. reporting the second-highest number at 3,065 cases. But records never tell the whole story for many rapes are not reported due to social stigma. Although after the Nirbhaya incident in 2012, the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act laid down the rules for stringent punishment, crimes against women continue, pointing at other issues that should be addressed from patriarchal mindsets to poor policing. For gender parity, more women must join the workforce, but thereby hangs another sorry tale. According to Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy data, women accounted for 10.7% of the workforce in 2019-20 and many lost jobs due to the pandemic. By November 2020, the CMIE reported that men recovered most of their lost jobs but not women. It is a matter of shame that even in 2021, women are asked to stay indoors at night instead of reaching for the moon.

*********************************************************************************************

-EDITORIAL BY THE HINDU 09012021

*****************************************************************************

Women should stay indoors for their safety.Do you agree ? Send your comments to plus2english @gmail.com .-Blogger

Today's pick

fratricide/ˈfratrɪsʌɪd/ the killing of one own brother or sister / of a member in the same forcethat one belongs to

Learn to pronounce

noun

1. 
   

The expectations people have from you-story

 Superb story writen by Chetan Bhagat in his FB Post

The expectations people have from you.

One night, just before the shopkeeper was about to close the shop, a dog came into the shop.

There was a bag in its mouth. The bag had a list of items to be bought and money. The shopkeeper took the money and kept the items in the bag.

Immediately, The dog picked up the bag of items and left. The shopkeeper was surprised and went behind the dog to see who the owner was.

The dog waited at the bus stop. After sometime, a bus came and the dog got into the bus. As soon as the conductor came, it moved forward to show his neck belt which had money and the address as well. The conductor took the money and put the ticket in his neck belt again.

When it reached the destination, the dog went to the front and wagged his tail indicating that he wanted to get down. The moment the bus stopped, it got down. The shopkeeper was still following it.

The dog knocked on the door of a house with its legs. Its owner came from inside and beat it with a stick.

The shocked shopkeeper asked him "why are you beating the dog?", to which the owner replied, "he disturbed my sleep. It could have taken the keys with it."

This is the truth of life. There is no end to the expectations people have from you. The moment you go wrong, they start pointing at our mistakes. All the good done in the past is forgotten. Any small mistake committed then gets magnified. This is the nature of this material world.!!!  

Recognising the value of housework

 A nod to recognising the value of housework

By Kalpana Karunakaran 

This is an agenda all political parties, and not just the Makkal Needhi Maiam, could incorporate in their manifestos......

In the context of the forthcoming State Assembly election in Tamil Nadu, the Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM), led by veteran actor Kamal Haasan, has made an eye-catching election promise that is evidently targeted at a large constituency of voters — women who are full-time homemakers. The party has promised to recognise housework as a salaried profession by paying homemakers ‘hitherto unrecognized and unmonetized’ for their work at home.A recent political entrant in the electoral fray, the MNM’s promise to directly pay women a monthly amount may be viewed as a strategy to grab attention in an over-crowded, highly competitive electoral landscape. Nonetheless, the promise bears close examination as it flags off an important issue and one that has had an interesting, if chequered significance in the history of women’s movements.

Origins of the demand

The demand for ‘wages for housework’ arose in the context of struggle and consciousness-raising associated with the Second Wave of the women’s movement in North America and Europe. Alongside other demands for social and political equality, women’s rights campaigners made visible and also politicised women’s everyday experience of housework and child care in the ‘private’ realm of the household. In doing this, they challenged the assumption that a ‘natural’ affinity for housework was rooted in the essential nature of women who were performing a ‘labour of love’. For leading women’s rights activists of the 1960s and 1970s, it was important to bust the myth that women’s work at home was a personal service with no links to capitalist production. In a concrete sense, this meant linking the exploitation of the worker in the factory to women’s work at home.

As Mariarosa Dalla Costa and Selma James wrote in their seminal piece in 1972 (https://bit.ly/2X6cU3B), the woman working at home produced ‘the living human being — the labourer himself.’ From the nine-month period of gestation in the womb, women’s daily chores of cooking, cleaning, washing, ironing clothes, preparing lunch boxes and so on produced the labour power that was daily consumed in the shop-floor or the assembly line and had to be reproduced afresh every day. By providing free services in the home,women made possible the survival of working-class households at subsistence-level wages, with obvious benefits for industry and capital.

Despite the links between the ‘housewife’ and the factory worker, the unwaged status of the former accounted for crucial differences between them. As feminist scholar and writer Silvia Federici wrote (in 1975), in “Wages against housework”, it was possible for wage-earners to bargain around the terms of their paid work and the quantity of the wage. ‘But exploited as you might be, you are not that work’, she pointed out (https://bit.ly/38UShNm). Housework, on the other hand, had come to define the very nature of a woman. This disallowed women from seeing it as ‘real work’ or as a social contract. And,therefore, the women who sought to negotiate housework with their partners were seen as ‘nagging b******’ and not as workers in struggle’. For the advocates of ‘wages for housework’, the wage that the state ought to pay women would make them autonomous of the men on whom they were dependent. More fundamentally, the very demand for a wage was a repudiation of housework as an expression of women’s nature. It was a revolt against the assigned social role of women. Therein lay

 the radical nature of the demand for wages, not in the money itself.

An unresolved issue

There was disagreement among the women ideologues of the Second Wave on what payment of a wage would actually mean for women. The sociologist, Ann Oakley, who studied the history of housework in her path-breaking books published in the 1970s, was among those who believed that ‘wages for housework’ would only imprison women further within the household, increase their social isolation and dissuade men from sharing housework.

Others too argued that the goal of the women’s movement must be, to not ask for wages, but to free women from the daily drudgery of routine domestic chores and enable them to participate fully in all spheres of social life, including paid employment outside the household. The debate around monetary remuneration for housework remained unresolved within the women’s movement, even as the tools to measure the value that women’s unpaid work adds to national economies have grown more sophisticated.

However, the underlying issue, which is the disproportionate share of women’s responsibility for the work that sustains human life and reproduces labour power, remains as pressing as ever. A report published by the International Labour Organization in 2018 (https://bit.ly/2Xbiim1) shows that, globally, women perform 76.2% of total hours of unpaid care work, more than three times as much as men. In Asia and the Pacific, this figure rises to 80%.

Defining this constituency

To return to the MNM’s election promise, would the payment of a wage by the state to homemakers redress the situation? This raises the tricky question of how this constituency is to be defined. Is it to be only women who are full-time homemakers? Many women earning a wage outside the home also perform the bulk of household work. On what ground are they to be excluded? What about women workers who earn an income from home by stitching clothes, selling cooked meals or are engaged in petty trade? They often self-identify as ‘housewives’ given the meagre and variable wages they earn and periods of seasonal unemployment.

These are issues that cannot be easily resolved. It would be better to strengthen the demand for a universal basic income for income-poor households and make sure that the cash transfer to the family reaches women directly, whether or not they combine household work with paid work.

Struggle for legislation

However, the demand that the state recognise housework is significant and its radical core must not be missed, as the historical experience of the women’s movement shows us. In this context, it is worth mentioning that an important campaign on the question of household labour has been taking place in India. This is the ongoing struggle for national legislation for domestic workers. These are predominantly women who perform ‘women’s work’ but in other people’s homes. They are, therefore, uniquely positioned to make this work visible and demand that its conditions be regulated, minimum wages guaranteed, and the workers’ status and rights protected.

The question of how to measure and account for the value of housework has been seriously addressed by women domestic workers and their trade unions in Tamil Nadu and elsewhere. Their demands include an hourly minimum wage, a weekly day-off, an annual bonus and the protection of their bodily autonomy in the workspace.

This is an agenda that all parties, and not just the MNM, could incorporate in their election manifestos, should they take seriously the mandate of ‘recognizing and monetizing’ housework. If domestic workers emerge as a strong force that succeeds in asserting the dignity of housework and making it a visible and valued form of labour, this can only be a good thing for all women performing housework in the long run.

**********************************************************************************************

*Kalpana Karunakaran teaches in the Department of Humanities,IIT MADRAS

-CREDITS TO "THE HINDU" 05 01 2021

Dear students, The poem ANY WOMAN by KATHERINE TYNAN also conveys the value of housework , though in a different angle. Do you agree ? Write your opinion in at least 120 words and send it to plus2english@gmail.com on or before 08 01 2021. The best five essays will be rewarded by this blogger.

*********************************************************************

A step back in gender equality-By Sunny Jose 

Paying women for domestic and care work is a recognition of their efforts but may not reduce and redistribute their burden

Is the electoral promise of paying women for carrying out domestic work and care work a progressive public policy? The proposal, put forth by Kamal Haasan’s political party, Makkal Needhi Maiam, has generated curiosity and reopened the old but unsettled academic debate. On the face of it, the proposal might appear progressive. However, closer scrutiny suggests otherwise.

Disproportionate burden of work

Women bear a disproportionately high burden of unpaid domestic work and care work in India. It would be instructive here to examine how Tamil Nadu, where the electoral promise is being made, fares vis-à-vis India. The all-India Time Use Survey (2019) says that 82% of females (six years and above) as against 24% of males from Tamil Nadu participate in unpaid domestic work. The huge disparity persists even if we look at the age group of 15-59 years: 90% of females and 24% of males participate in domestic work. A similar disparity prevails at the all-India level as well: 81% of females (six years and above) and 26% of males participate in unpaid domestic work. There is an equally huge disparity in the average time spent by participating males and females. While females (six years and above) in Tamil Nadu spend, on average, 261 minutes a day in unpaid domestic work, males spend only 91 minutes. The corresponding figures for females and males in India are 299 minutes and 97 minutes, respectively. The data suggest that females bear more than 83% of the burden of domestic and care work both in Tamil Nadu and India.

Can the proposed policy address the huge burden that women are forced to endure daily? Posed differently, what should a progressive policy proposal aim at: paying women a wage for domestic and care work or addressing the huge gender disparity? The insights offered by the feminist economist Diane Elson (2017) are pertinent. The gist of her argument is this: public policy should aim at closing the huge gender gap in unpaid domestic and care work through ‘recognition, reduction and redistribution’ (Triple-R).

The party’s proposal only satisfies the first component of Triple-R, that is ‘recognition’. Paying a wage is a formal recognition of the fact that unpaid domestic and care work are no less important than paid market work, as the latter is parasitic on the former. Since it is women who predominantly carry out unpaid domestic and care activities, often at the expense of their employment prospects and health, the monetary reward is a recognition of their contribution to the well-being of the household and the opportunities forgone by women. The proposal appears progressive, for this reason and to that measure.

Failing two aspects

If the broader aim of a progressive public policy is to close the gender gap in unpaid domestic and care work, how does the proposal measure up? Specifically, will paying women a wage for domestic and care work reduce their disproportionately huge daily burden? The proposal not only fails miserably in this aspect, but also has the potential to increase women’s burden. This is because paying monetary benefits carries with it the possible danger of formally endorsing the social norm that domestic and care work are ‘women’s work’, for which they are being paid. The purportedly progressive proposal thus has the risk of furthering the gender disparity in unpaid work within homes.

What’s more, it also fails in the other crucial aspect of ‘redistribution’ of the burden of unpaid work. In fact, it might give space for men to claim that women are bound to do these unpaid activities as they are being compensated for the time spent or income foregone, and that women can at best expect men only to help but not participate daily in carrying out these activities.

The fact that only 24% of men from Tamil Nadu participate in and spend less time than women on unpaid domestic work calls for a policy proposal that increases men’s participation and the time they spend in unpaid work at home. Instead of incentivising men to participate more in household work and reducing women’s burden by redistributing the responsibility, the current proposal might do the opposite.

Incentivising men, monetarily or otherwise, to participate more and spend longer hours in carrying out unpaid domestic work is one thing, but paying women a wage for shouldering the primary responsibility is another. At best, the latter might help meet what the academic Caroline Moser referred to as ‘practical’ gender needs. But it cannot possibly address the ‘strategic’ gender needs of reducing and redistributing women’s burden. The electoral promise, therefore, lacks the transformative potential of achieving gender equality in sharing unpaid work.

Sunny Jose is RBI Chair Professor at the Council for Social Development, Southern Regional Centre, Hyderabad. Views are personal

CREDITS TO THE HINDU 11/01/2021

Focus areas 12 Exams March 2021

 

English -(clik each word for notes)

 3Ls of Empowerment,

Match box,

Any woman,

Horegallu,

The hour of truth,

A three wheeled revoution ,

Rice

HeadLines 04.01.2021#498, Monday

1. 4,600 COVID cases reported in Kerala on Sunday; 4,668 recoveries.

2. Kerala to conduct COVID density study to prevent a new virus outbreak.

3.Poet, lyricist Anil Panachooran passes away.

4. Colleges set to reopen today

5. India's approval of COVAXIN criticised over lack of data.

6. 7 of wedding party killed, several injured as bus falls off road on top of house in Kasaragod.

7. 23 dead after roof of crematorium collapses in Ghaziabad.

8. PM Modi cannot see the pain and struggle of farmers: Sonia Gandhi.

9. Union minister Sadananda Gowda collapses due to low blood sugar.

10.Tehran steps up nuclear plans as tensions rise on anniversary of Suleimani’s killing.

11. Real Madrid beats Celta Vigo 2-0 to go top in Spain

Headlines Vocab

1. collapse 

/kəˈlæps/

(of building)

​   to fall down or fall in suddenly, often after breaking apart

 SYNONYM give way 

"The roof collapsed under the weight of snow."

(of sick person)

​  to fall down (and usually become unconscious), especially because you are very ill.

"She collapsed and was rushed to hospital."

 Qasem Suleimani 

He was an Iranian major general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and, from 1998 until his death in 2020, commander of its Quds Force, a division primarily responsible for extraterritorial military and clandestine operations.

Extracted from SPEP

NEWS ANALYSIS SUNDAY , 03 01 2021

 CLICK HERE NEWS ANALYSIS SUNDAY , 03 01 2021

HeadLines03.01.2021#497, Sunday

AUDIO NEWS BY ANAJALI

1. 5,328 COVID cases reported in Kerala on Sat; 4,985 recoveries.

2. After Covishield, Bharat Biotech's Covaxin also gets expert panel nod.

3.India becomes first country to culture U.K. variant strain.

4. Free vaccination for 3 crore frontline workers in first phase: Health Minister.

5. Congress need not project a CM candidate in Kerala, says Tariq Anwar’s report to Sonia.

6. Neyyattinkara incident: Deceased couple’s sons reject Boby Chemmanur’s offer.

7. PM Modi to inaugurate Kochi-Mangaluru GAIL pipeline on January 5.

8. Bitcoin rallies above $30,000 for first time.

9.Niger village attacks 'kill at least 56 people'.

10.Thousands break virus restrictions at French rave.

headlines Vocab

1. culture 

ˈkʌltʃə(r)/

 grow a group of cells or bacteria for medical or scientific study

2. frontline 

/ˈfrʌntlaɪn/

​in the most important or dangerous position; doing essential work that puts you at risk

3. GAIL 

Gail (India) Limited (GAIL) (formerly known as Gas Authority of India Ltd.) is an Indian public sector natural gas processing and distribution company headquartered in New Delhi, India.

4. Bitcoin 

It is a decentralized digital currency without a central bank or single administrator that can be sent from user to user on the peer-to-peer bitcoin network without the need for intermediaries. 

5. rave

/reɪv/

 നൃത്തോത്സവം

 a large party, held outside or in an empty building, at which people dance to fast electronic music and often take illegal drugs

AN ANITIATIVE BY SPEP

Companies promote silence and miracles

Story One

 A certain company had a tradition of holding a party and a lottery every Christmas Eve.

 The rules of the lottery draw were as follows: each employee pays ten dollars as a fund. There were three hundred people in the company. In other words, a total of three thousand dollars can be raised.  The winner takes all the money home.

On the day of the lottery draw, the office was filled with a lively atmosphere. Everyone wrote their names on the slips of paper and put them in the lottery box.

However, a young man hesitated when he wrote.  Because he thought that the company's Cleaning  lady's frail and sickly son was going to have an operation soon after the dawn of New Year but she did not have the required money to pay for the operation, which made her quite troubled.

 So, even though he knew that the chance of winning was slim, with only a three percent chance, the man wrote the name of the Cleaner lady on the note.

 The tense moment came. The boss doubled in the lottery box, and finally drew out a note. The man also kept praying in his heart: hoping against  hope that the Cleaning lady can win the prize...Then the boss carefully announced the winner’s  Name, a miracle happened!

The winner turned out to be the Cleaning lady. Cheers broke out in the office, and the Cleaning lady hurriedly rushed to the stage to accept the award. She almost burst into tears and said, " I am so fortunate and blessed !  With this money, my son now has hope!"

At the beginning of the party, while thinking about this "Christmas miracle", the man paced to the lottery box. He took out a piece of paper and opened it casually. The name on it was also the name of the Cleaning lady!  The man was very surprised. He took out several pieces of paper one after another. Although the handwriting on them was different, the names were all the same, all of them were the names of the Cleaning lady  The man's eyes were filled with tears and he clearly understood that there was a Christmas miracle in the world, but  the miracle will not fall from the sky,  the people were required to create it by themselves!

*****************************************************************************

"Story Two"

 One afternoon, I went for a walk with a friend in the suburbs. Suddenly, an old man in tattered clothes approached us with a bag of green vegetables in his hand.  The sales of those vegetables on that day  were very poor, the leaves seemed dehydrated  and yellowish and there were holes in them as if  bitten by insects.  But my friend bought three bags without saying a word. The old man also embarrassedly explained: "I grew these vegetables myself. It rained a while ago, and the vegetables were soaked. They look ugly. I'm sorry."

 After the old man left, I asked my friend: "Will you really cook these  when you go home?"

 He didn't want to say No to me. " These vegetables can no longer be eaten."

 "Then why did you take the trouble of buying them?" I asked.

He replied,"Because it is impossible for anyone to buy those vegetables.  If I don't buy it, the old man will probably have no income for today."

I admired my friend's thoughtfulness and concern, so I caught up with the old man and bought some vegetables from him.  The old man said very happily, "I tried to sell them the whole day , but no one was ready to buy them. I am so happy that you both  were willing to buy from me. . Thank you so much."

Several handfuls of green vegetables that I can't eat at all taught me a valuable lesson.

When we are in a low ebb, we all hope that miracles will happen to us; but when we are capable, are we willing to be the one who creates miracles?  !

*************************************************************************8

What do companies promote ? Silence and miracles .

What does democracy promote? discussions and consensus.

Why should we wait for charity if we have a system to take care of these old people providing them livelihood and independence ?

Charity without freedom is cheating .-CKR

**********************************************************

Headlines today

1. Mullappally Ramachandran takes complete responsibility for LSG poll debacle , admits shortcomings .

2. CPM dissolves Chundppuram branch office in Koduvally municipality after LDF candidate gets 0 votes.

3.CBSE schools in Kerala to resume classes for 10, 12 on Jan 1.

4. Kerala: Left workers raise Tricolour at municipal office after BJP unfurls 'Jai Sri Ram' banner.

5. Noted critic M Leelavathy bags this year's ONV literary award.

6.Setting stage for Kerala Assembly polls, CM Pinarayi Vijayan to tour districts from Dec 22.

7. Railways incurs 87% loss in passenger revenue due to COVID-19.

8.Hathras victim was gang-raped, murdered: CBI.

9.Fresh jolt to Mamata Banerjee as third MLA quits party in two days.

10.Pakistan alleges India preparing for ‘surgical strike’.

11. The US is under a massive and ongoing cyber attack.

12.Russia's doping ban reduced to two years, Court of Arbitration for Sport rules.

13. Cyberpunk 2077 : Sony pulls game from PlayStation store after complaints.

Headlines Vocab

1. debacle 

/dɪˈbɑːkl/

  പതനം

​an event or a situation that is a complete failure and causes people to feel ashamed or embarrassed

"He should take responsibility for the debacle and resign."

2. shortcoming 

/ˈʃɔːtkʌmɪŋ/

 പോരായ്‌മ

​a fault in somebody’s character, a plan, a system, etc.

"She made me aware of my own shortcomings ."

3. unfurl 

/ˌʌnˈfɜːl/

 വിടര്‍ത്തുക, കൊടിയേറ്റുക

​when something that is curled or rolled tightly unfurls, or you unfurl it, it opens

"The protesters tried to unfurl a banner."

4. incur 

/ɪnˈkɜː(r)/

വരുത്തിവയ്‌ക്കുക

become subject to (something unwelcome or unpleasant) as a result of one's own behaviour or actions.

"I will pay any expenses incurred "

5. jolt 

ഞെട്ടല്‍

/dʒəʊlt/

​a sudden strong feeling, especially of shock or surprise

My failure gave me a severe jolt .

6. doping 

/ˈdəʊpɪŋ/

 ഉത്തേജക മരുന്ന്

കഴിക്കുക

​the practice of using drugs to affect performance in a race or other sport

"Athletes have had their medals withdrawn after a doping scandal."

 Cyberpunk 2077 

It is an upcoming action role-playing video game developed and published by CD Projekt.

*********************************************************

extracted from SPEP

NEWS HEADLINES 17122020

  HeadLines17.12.2020#480, Thursday

*******************************************************

1. Left wave in Kerala LSG Polls

2.Boost for Pinarayi Vijayan as Left ahead in Kerala local polls.

3. On victory day, Pinarayi projects LDF as the sole secular party in Kerala.

4.JEE Main 2021 to be held from February 23 to 26.

5. Cabinet approves spectrum auction with reserve price of ₹3.92 lakh crore.

6.Prime Minister to attend Aligarh Muslim University’s centenary celebrations.

7. India successfully test fires Prithvi II ballistic missiles

8.Facebook to test relaunched Instagram Lite in India.

9.French court finds Charlie Hebdo attack accomplices guilty.

10. Israeli spy firm suspected of accessing global telecoms via Channel Islands.

Headlines Vocab

1. centenary /senˈtiːnəri/ശതവാര്‍ഷികം

​the 100th anniversary of an event

"The club will celebrate its centenary next year."

2. accomplice/əˈkʌmplɪs/കുറ്റകൃത്യത്തില്‍ സഹായിക്കുന്നവന്‍

​a person who helps another to commit a crime or to do something wrong.

"The police suspect that he had an accomplice ."

*********************************************************

Extracted from SPEP ( edited -CKR)