Sunday, April 27, 2008

Crazy English

One source of amusement for me is my nose for errors on signboards and public notices. Every city in the world has its share of goofs. If you watch out for these, you will never get bored. You can always extract a chuckle from what you see around you.

The one on the left below is from the city of Bangalore. It took me a while to decipher the cryptic message, until a burly man with black oil on his hands and face walked up to me and said, "Sir, you want puncher work or wallkenosing, we are experts. Just tell us what you want to do, and we do it for you!"




No, he wasn't offering to punch some one's nose for me - he was looking at the tyres of my car as he spoke, and it dawned on me that he was speaking of 'vulcanising' and 'fixing punctures'.

This one's from Canada
The picture on the right is one that I took in the Royal Kennebecasis Yacht Club, Rothesay, NB, Canada. The confusion between you're and your is a common one around the world. I think the reason is simply that they are homophones.

Read "Eats Shoots and Leaves" by Lynne Truss

Sunday, April 20, 2008

An Inconvenient Truth

I borrow the title of Al Gore's Oscar winner for this post. I was convinced of the need for all the effort that we as individuals can throw in (except 'the kitchen sink' as the democrats might scream from their rostra) to save our precious world, when I saw the way my family members in Canada took it all seriously enough to separate their organic waste from plastic garbage, kitchen refuse from paper, trash from cardboard and metal cans.

THE PICTURE SHOWS PAM AND MOHAN AT THE CITY DUMP DEPOSITING THEIR GARBAGE IN THE APPROPRIATE RECEPTACLES [SAINT JOHN, NB, CANADA]
Listen to the Birds
12- and 13-year-olds of THE GENIUS scripted a play called Listen to the Birds - I referred to this in an earlier posting on this blog. Here are some stills from the play they staged at The Genius Annual Awards - if you had watched it, heard the words spoken, and had a little feeling in you, you would have felt a lump in your throat as a little girl says, "We have much to do. We have to educate a whole city!"
Directed by Anand Wilfred and Aunty, the cast included the following (in order of appearance):-
Anshul Gupta as The Oracle Owl making dire predictions for Indore
Sharvil Thatte as Vladimir, an old crane from Siberia
Ishita Garg as Natasha, a young crane from Siberia
Ameya Dubey as Decci, the old tortoise that lives on the banks of Sirpur Lake, Indore
Sankalp Arora and Vedant Dhakad as the indifferent Lake officials
Somya Jain as the little girl Aditi who wishes to clean up all the garbage by herself
Kartik Vyas as Raj, Aditi's friend, initially indifferent, later converted to her way of thinking
Vedant Dhakad as Gerome, a moorhen who sees Aditi's bag of garbage and flies away
The choir - a group of 10- and 11-year olds who together sang The Conservation Song

GARIMA AND ANAND IN THE CONTROL ROOM OVERLOOKING THE STAGE

THE RESIDENT OWL IS THE ORACLE AT SIRPUR LAKE, INDORE
HE HAS DIRE WARNINGS FOR THE EARTH
THE CRANES, NATASHA AND VLADIMIR ARGUE OVER MIGRATING
TO THE POLLUTED INDIAN WATERS; BHARATPUR, THEIR TRADITIONAL
NESTING PLACE IN RAJASTHAN HAS NO MORE WATER!

AAAAAAAAAAAA
AT SIRPUR LAKE, THE RESIDENT TORTOISE CONVINCES VLADIMIR TO SPEAK TO THE HUMANS. HE SAYS, "ONLY HUMANS POLLUTE, AND ONLY THEY CAN SAVE THE EARTH"
VLADIMIR SPEAKS TO INDIFFERENT
LAKE OFFICIALS WHO SHOO THE BIRD AWAY

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

ADITI, A LITTLE GIRL PLEADS WITH HER FRIEND RAJ TO BE ON HER SIDE IN THE MISSION TO CLEAN UP THE CITY AND EDUCATE ITS PEOPLE. RAJ TAKES SOME CONVINCING, BUT HE IS WITH HER AT THE END


AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
DISCUSSING STRATEGY:
NATASHA, GEROME (THE MOORHEN) AND DECCI.
VLADIMIR JOINS THEM

NATASHA SPEAKS TO ADITI


AAAAAAAAAAAA
THE CAST IS JOINED BY THE CHOIR AS THEY SING "THE CONSERVATION SONG"
THE CAST TAKES A FINAL BOW
An important comment ought to be made at this point - Siberian Cranes decided a few years ago to seek new water bodies rather than visit a country where there is little realisation of the need for their form of life, besides thousands of others. All rivers are sacred to the people of India, but most gutters and the waste from cities flow into these rivers! Things are changing. If more children would educate more adults, I am sure we would lead the world in a global race for conservation.



Friday, April 18, 2008

Supreme Court of India and Noise

Anguish that cannot be resolved

I write this at midnight - no, not exactly 12 yet, it will be in a few minutes. I remember the Supreme Court of India had spoken out on the Indian penchant for noise on special occasions, and issued orders: "... regarding use of loudspeaker, Court directed that noise level at boundary of public place, where loudspeaker or public address system or any other noise source is being used shall not exceed 10 dB(A) above ambient noise standards for area or 75 dB(A) whichever is lower – beating of drum or tom-tom or blow of trumpet or beat or sound of any instrument or use of any sound amplifier at night (between 10. 00 p.m. and 6.a.m.) except in public emergencies prohibited..." - http://esamskriti.com/rc_noise_poll_2.htm.

Silence after 10 p.m.?

It was only yesterday (Thursday April 17) that the High Court bench in Indore had drawn the attention of the Collector and the Superintendent of Police to the deplorable state of public discipline in Indore. Yet, here I am, at midnight, unable to shut the "kajra..re.." cacophony at probably 1000 deciBels at some wedding party close by, the police ignoring my pleas for help. I shall stay awake for another hour before the peaceful oblivion of sleep overtakes my tortured soul.

Note the Supreme Court's time limitation - 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. - if this has not been understood, and if the common man must tolerate this encroachment on his rights ... ... ?

As I come to the end of this post, a mass of drums and loud shouts have begun indicating the onset of more fun for the revellers of the night at the cost of the peace of mind of a thousand tormented people, some old, some sick, some just babies struggling to sleep through all this - and the lawkeepers ignore it all. This is what the Madhya Pradesh High Court compared to the apocryphal tale of Nero who fiddled while Rome was burning. Is anyone out there listening?

A Police Sub-Inspector told me last week: "Sir, if there is one single political leader, let alone a Minister or a bigwig, if just one leader of a political party is present at a wedding, the organisers will turn up the volume to what ever level they please, and no policeman, no, not even the SP will lift a finger!" I am now wondering if this damning comment is true after all.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Winning and winning

The discord between winning and winning

My dear Little Genius: "I am glad you wrote to me - you say you miss THE GENIUS. Is it because you had wonderful times while you armed yourself for a future that will be yours in just a few more years?

"You displayed qualities that the best of children have in their minds, their heads, and even in their hearts. This means that losing out the proficiency award or The Genius of the Year Award should mean nothing at all if you earned yourself the confidence that you have the tools to conquer the world in your chosen field of activity with your capabilities.

"Awards in any organisation are handed out on the basis of certain criteria - which a person fulfils at times, and at other times, does not manage to meet the demands. So many factors affect the performance of a child in his/her competitions or tests that it is necessary for us to accept the result without losing our respect for the efforts that go into the performance. My advice to you is simply that no award, no competition is more important than your personal happiness. All you need now is a strong dose of confidence.

"If friends (or well-wishers) make you cry when you lose out somewhere, it is because they have not understood the difference. I speak of the difference and the disharmony between winning and winning. You are as much a winner as any other and so just buckle down, face forward, keep the sun ahead, and let the shadow fall behind - and gallop on toward the sunset!

"The best of honours will have to be yours, sooner or later."

This is a message to every student who did not win some coveted award for some reason or the other, not necessarily owing to a fault in the student!

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Some stray thoughts

"SMS" - the new written language?

Modern abbreviations are useful while sending a message on a cellphone, and the simplified language is probably acceptable to many purists. However, I think we ought to draw a line when it comes to all other forms of communication - emails, company letters, and even personal letters. Most sms-writers would have begun the last sentence with newez which, I was told by a young person, was a short form for the word anyways. It is time to realise that it is simply not a word in the English language! If you mean anyhow, you may say anyway without adding an s to it.
The environment
I read somewhere that the Amazon forests that constitute the largest green cover on earth, is gradually being eroded by human encroachment - dwellings, stretching of agricultural activities into its territory, and blatant tree-cutting. Is Brazil's bio-fuel obsession causing encroachment on forest land by sugarcane cultivators? These are matters for young people to think deeply and raise their voices with the officials concerned, or to write letters to newspaper editors .
A group of my students got together to put on a stage play on our environment and its deadly effect on some of the world's most beautiful migratory birds. We must pause to think that some of them even from as far away as Siberia choose India as their summer home to nest and breed in. The children spoke of "the plastic droppings of dirty humans" that pollute the beautiful places that host our avian guests. Very rightly a wise tortoise advises a little girl to speak to other children of the need to clean up the environment for "only humans pollute ... and only humans can undo the damage." It is time all children sat up and took notice as adults are not doing enough.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

The Genius of the Year

The Genius Annual Awards 2008

We had our annual do on the evening of the 5th of March in the sophisticated auditorium of Indore's DAVV University. Over 300 children received prizes for performance in various areas of intellectual activity. Ten children between the ages of 6 and 16, the best performers in their groups, received an encyclopaedia each as the Proficiency Award.

The Winner
The star of the evening, however, was Ishanika Sharma, smiling and eager, a bright and bubbly 11-year old -- who won The Genius of the Year Award that included a silver trophy, a Certificate, and a 21-volume set of The New Book of Knowledge (known as the world's best family reference set). The legend on the trophy: "high intellectual
potential and consistent superior performance".
It was a moment of pride for Ishanika and her parents.
THE TROPHY

A PICTURE OF THE ENTIRE TEAM THAT CONTRIBUTES TO BUILDING THE THINKING SKILLS OF INDORE'S CHILDREN

The Great Conversation

My address to the parents and the children ranged over topics that are of concern to me, and should be of concern to all. The one thing my students must remember is the reference I made to 'The Great Conversation' that has gone on for over thirty centuries among the intellectuals who put down their thoughts in books. Books give us the wisdom of the ages. While we are profoundly influenced by some writers, their ideas were not all born within the minds of those writers. They had read other great thinkers and their books. We may assume that Dickens or Swift would have been influenced by Shakespeare, and Shakespeare in his turn by Aristotle and Plato and Socrates , whose intellects were probably impelled by Homer.

When you read a book, see in your mind's eye your own self standing with the author, and around you are other great minds of ages past, the great men and women who influenced the works of that author, and you are conversing with them; you are arguing, and listening to their reasoning, asking questions, and getting answers. Contrast this imaginary scenario with watching a television serial that has been made for the average mind of a factory worker. Our civilisation, as we know it, will come to an end if the exalted conversation grinds to a halt. We have an obligation to keep it going. [When you are free, read the article The Moral Obligation to be Intelligent by John Erskine at http://home.uchicago.edu/~ahkissel/education/erskine.html.]