Pea for English: Follow Up

Pea for English is the new English training strategy devised on the premises that the growth of the pea plant mirrors, somewhat closely, the steps involved in second-language acquisition. Preparing the soil [identifying the proper aptitude for language learning], Planting the seed [equipping the language learner with the basic laws of the second language], watering [reading on a daily basis, materials written in the language that is being learnt], etc.

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We planted a pea plant in the first semester B. Com classroom, in a garden pot. Each day three students would pour small quantities of water to the seed still in slumber inside the soil. I had made take an oath that the ones who water the plant must participate in a thirty minutes reading, each day. So each one responsible to water the plant would read for at least half an hour, anything they come across.

If no one participates in the ritual, the seed would not get water that day. Of course, the students are extremely enthusiastic to learn English. Every day, since the planting of the seed, they watered it and observed the progress. The seed, however, was not showing any progress at all.

An image taken on September 5: The garden pot, after the intrusion.

Today, on 5 September 2013, to my utter shock, the garden pot, in which we had planted the pea seed one week back, had many shoots of mustard leaves in it. At first, I could not even discern what those tiny green out growths in the soil were. One of the students from the class said, they were mustard seeds. Clearly, something had gone wrong. After a limited, but efficient enquiry, I realized what happened, and the shock of that still rings in my veins. Someone from the senior students had bullied with the garden pot.

Someone had poured boiling water in the pot and then, later, in order to communicate a conspicuous message of threat, spread mustard seeds in the pot. Clearly, the number of persons involved is vague. They may be two, perhaps, or more. It does not matter who did it, or how many of them were there. What matters ultimately, is why they did such a horrendous action.

Planting the pea seed was a symbolic action—an archetype. Jungian archetypes are sure to connect among human minds, even if words spoken aloud, or written do not make sense. The unconscious self will pick up the sense in the teaching process, through its association with fertility and agriculture. I am sure that this approach will enable language-learning effective. While working on a project full of archetypal symbols and psychological stimulators, the last thing I needed was am interruption. However, I received just the same, and a grave one indeed.

 

Signs of evil: Mustard seeds in the 'Pea for English' pot.

If ‘Pea for English’ was intended to invoke the unconscious capabilities of language acquisition, the bullies had delivered a symbolic blow to the attempt. What I am concerned about more, right now, is not about the Pea for English program itself, but for the mental health of the students. The incident must have surely shaken their unconscious mind, even though they seem not much aware of it, consciously. My next step should be to control the emotional damage in the students.

Both this incident and its influence upon me and the students would definitely etiolate the smooth proceeding of the language class. I wonder what their motives might have been. Were they somehow trying to convey a message to me that I should not give those students the special coaching I was planning to. Or, was their deed just a reflection of the unconscious cultural attitude of Kerala society?

Kerala is notorious for its ill handling of issues related to development, growth, and ethical integrity. An ill equipped and largely corrupt governmental system works its ways down the hill in preserving nature, because for most the “development experts” hired by the government, development means transforming the state into desert, much like the UAE. Any novel idea or innovative model of environmental and social management always meets with harsh criticism and physical assault. Ethical integrity is considered arrogance or dissidence. What else can one expect from a society that has rotten to its core? William Shakespeare’s metaphor of an empty hell is supremely apt here. A dysfunctional society manifests itself in the demonic practices of its individuals.

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The day I found the mustard seeds in the garden pot coincided with the much-celebrated Teachers’ Day in India. On 5 September, the second president of independent India, Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was born in 1888. He was a prominent philosopher and taught even at the legendary Oxford University. This seems not to be a mere coincidence to me. What I had planted as a symbolic path to knowledge has given me the fruit I was expecting—knowledge. I told the students this; there will be obstructions to each of your dedicated attempts to do better. This should not budge you from your path.

It would be facile to say I am not shaken by the unacceptable event that took place. I am, very much. However, I would like to investigate into their motivation. I am sure I would benefit from it, as seeker of the true knowledge, ‘epignosis’.  



Also refer: Pea for English

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Good Times will be back

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Itis often easy to say that we are stuck in the sea of negative energy. Having confined amidst hard times, one is often unable to perform his best in the commitments to the self as well as to others. However, in the post-relativity-theory world we should be extremely careful talking about good and bad. The evil upper hand the theory of relativity provided some of us is this imposing confusion.

Is it actually a bad time for all of us? Or is it just our way of looking at things?

If we are faltering in our commitments and personal goals, and hide behind the comforting reasons of it being a bad time for good things to happen, then we are making the most of it, no matter if it is good times or bad. We have to look at our reality, (talking about the physical reality here) with a perspective less tainted by parochial subjectivism. When we replace “I”, “me”, and “you” with “we” and “us” the resulting picture of the world is where we need to look for good times or bad times.

It is evident that one cannot subtract his or her subjectivity entirely from one’s personality. What is needed is an assimilation of the self into the totality of the picture. That is why “we” or “us”, in which the individual is part of the collective totality and the analysis would at least be neither too objective to be unimpressive nor too subjective to be limited.

In the analysis, I considered myself part of the large world and studied the bias of the times. I find it being a bad time, for us all. Yes, we are living through bad times, period. I am not imposing this idea or being indignant.

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In India, currency is crumbling down. They are banning some food items*, because it is too costly, and distributing booze, instead, for it is suited for making people bear the burden. The world is expecting a war from all the corners. Chemical weapons sear the skins and bodies of infants and small kids. Men and women suffer the worst heartaches and find no consolation from anywhere. Most of them, obviously have forgotten how to pray. God, for most of the university wits, is a matter of academic metaphor or naïve sentimentality.

The list goes on. Tell me if there is something the other way round, in this upside down world of morons. I am not distrustful of the power of Patience; I am just reminding you the power of anger and the challenge of the chaos. When the world outside us is chaotic, our minds become chaotic. The good thing about chaos is that it is the candle bearer of creation. So let’s hope, good times will be back.    

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*From 29 August 2013, onwards chicken products will not be available in Kerala, because of the price hike by the government.

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Happy Birthday, Paulo Coelho!

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It’sbeen magnificent, not just for the Brazilian author, Paulo Coelho, but for the whole book-reading world. The frenzy some of his books created still lasts in the global culture. The Alchemist, The Witch of Portobello, Brida, and The Fifth Mountain, to name a few. Mr. Coelho’s books took the New Age intellectual revolution into the new millennium.

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If Castaneda’s books provide us with a line of awareness between the ordinary reality and the parallel ones, in Paulo Coelho’s literary universe, they merge into one. A very good example can be seen in The Alchemist. When Santiago and the alchemist were in the desert in front of the bandits, where they would later perform the miracle of being transformed into wind, we see this same merging of realities.

Five years back, in a small public library in Kannur, I discovered my first Paulo Coelho book. I had heard his name previously in the pamphlets and bullets published by one of the prominent publishers in Kerala. When I came across The Fifth Mountain, in that small public library, I did not hesitate to pick it.

However, I should not say, if my memory is not betraying me, I was entirely free of doubt just before taking the book that this would be a great read. I was hesitant enough, just like any one would be. I turned the pages and took the first page. It was lucid, simple, and direct. I took it, without another hesitation.

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In the preface of The Fifth Mountain I read that universal mantra of self-realization, for the first time. Remember, The Fifth Mountain was the first ever book I read, by Paulo Coelho. I did not even hear about The Alchemist, before I took The Fifth Mountain in my hands. Perhaps, I had heard about The Alchemist from the bulletin, but I could not recall such an event now.

“And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

These words reminded me that my dreams are not mine alone, but they have a reason to be in my mind. Whatever I write from here onwards, about how this quote helped me to put life into perspective, would, I am afraid, become a shapeless outburst of my gratefulness to the author, to the teacher. August 24^th is his birthday.

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I wish my dear writer, Paulo Coelho, a very happy birthday. May you receive the best of joy, health, and sunshine.   

I regret addressing Paulo a Brazilian author, in the beginning of this short piece. He is very much a universal writer, given his reach and impact.

    

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Egypt Crisis and the Like

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March of Anger in Egypt had already claimed its share of lives. The border tension in Indo-Pak and Indo-China border could escalate into alarming levels, to mention only a few. There are battles and conflicts in many other parts of the world. Surprisingly enough, I discovered some common alternative realities that could have made a difference. In this article, I try to elaborate on them.

What is Patience? For an individual from 21^st century, this question might trigger the necessity of looking things out from Wikipedia or Encyclopedia Britanica or some other Google page. Only when the barriers of life pose a living threat to their peaceful existence do they understand knowing the classical definition of patience and being patient are contrary to each other. Therefore, more than a definition, an instance perhaps would be of service to the knowing of Patience. I used patience with a capital ‘P’ because my idea of Patience changed significantly once I heard this story.

“The Caterpillar and the Breeze” is more or less a children’s story. I included this in my collection, Wall of Colours andOther Stories, because I felt that the message of the story is more than what a child could comprehend. Well, in the ‘child is the father of man’ sense, “The Caterpillar and the Breeze” fits well. Otherwise, it is a story that I felt, would take a child’s innocence to tell, but an adult’s intelligence to decipher.

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“The Caterpillar and the Breeze” carries the message of hope, as all the stories in Wall of Colours. However, the message that we would see here is another. Patience. Nowhere in the story, is patience addressed directly, although in each of the words uttered by the caterpillar, the amazing spirit of patience is revealed.   

The story tells us about a breeze who does not understand a caterpillar’s life cycle. So it goes on mocking the caterpillar when it was constructing a cocoon, telling him about the futility of negating death.

“Why do you still continue it, when you are sure to die?” Breeze was confused.

  

In this story, I used the nouns Breeze and Caterpillar as proper nouns, suggesting the names of the two entities. The caterpillar was still on her errand of constructing a cocoon. The breeze, who could not understand the meaning of the process, was confused. The caterpillar shows exceptional patience in front the derogatory remarks of the breeze.

Even though the caterpillar reaches hope at the end of the story, the route towards hope starts with/from patience. The cocoon symbolizes patience. Notice the emotional state of the breeze. It is confused. In other words, patience opens the doors of hope for us, and the lack of patience not just causes damage to hope but also prevents us from having a clear understanding of reality.

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The caterpillar is about to die, according to the breeze. However, a surprise is awaiting the caterpillar at the other end of death, which is the reality for Caterpillar—the resurrection into a butterfly. The breeze does not know that.

This story is categorized a Molecular Storyand I also used this statement before the opening of the story; “A molecular story for the adult, who still keeps a child within.” It could also mean that in order to taste patience and the resulting advantage called hope, one must keep a child’s heart, afraid of the unknown, yet at the same time have the courage to venture into its depths.

This is my message to those who are suffering from the chaos resulted from anger and frustration, in Egypt as well as in all other parts of the world. Patience will open the doors to witness the Colours of the Cosmos.

For more: Wall of Colours and Other Stories      

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Sinkhole in Florida; Land Fragility in Kerala

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Whenwill humanity realize they are about to crush their own home, the earth into ruin. Their elaborate plans of development are causing the earth’s environment to deteriorate and erode away. Wait a minute before saying yes or hitting the red ‘X’ on the right-hand side of your screen to close this page.

I do not intend to bombard you with the kitsch of environmentalism. However, one cannot ignore how mother earth suffers, as her guests ruin her charm and health. Oops, did I say guests? Well, let us assume that we, humans are not exactly the sons and daughters of mother earth. Suppose we are guests living on this planet, came and settled here from some other world.

How wonderful that would be, in the sense that the guilt in damaging the balance of ‘mother’ nature can easily be reversed as a sort of pitiless conquest. In every culture, there are creation myths, and in all these myths, there are events that lead to the creation and spreading of human race through a being or energy source that is not of this earth.

 

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The point I am raising here is; why should we resort to extreme forms of self-flagellation in the premises of environmental concerns? Why do we always say ‘we’, humans destroyed our habitat when it is in human nature to destroy and demolish everything that comes in our way of conquest. We are never good at co-existing, as a Hollywood movie script puts it.

One of the recent issues regarding a misbehaving nature, is down here in Kerala is the fragility in land mass surrounding hilly areas. This was a grave issue in the southern parts of Kerala in recent months. Landslides killed many people in Idukki district, a few weeks back, in the month of June. Today the news came from Florida, US that a thirty meters wide sinkhole devoured a part of a resort. The parallels are interesting and shocking.

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Many of the politicians, news media, and researchers interpreted the cause for landslides as man’s intervention into nature. [Note the masculine noun.]Heavy rain is one reason for landslides, and so is with sinkholes, a destitute child of nature on imbalance.

Inhabiting a planet with such a volatile environment seems a less workable idea. Either human beings can take their spaceships out and search for another planet to live in, leaving behind mother earth, or they can try resolving this problem by channeling creative energies in harmonious ways.

The choice is with us.                     

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